Mark Ron: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — In Committee 
Mark Ron: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15321] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I have been in my office watching members on the television. This new parliamentary internal television system is a wonderful thing. It will provide great DVDs during the election will it not? We will be able to say: “Oh he said that today? Let me play a DVD and show what he said in the House.” I am so looking forward to that moment because the inconsistencies here tonight have been just mind-boggling. Members have been waxing on lyrically. I confess that when I was sitting in the Opposition benches I was probably one of the Hon George Hawkins’ greatest antagonists when he was the Minister of Police. But he must be feeling sick to the stomach with the some of the waxing that has been going on from some of the National MPs who have been saying how highly they regard him on the back of this bill. That is not what they used to say about him when he was the Minister of Police attempting to do the very same thing. In fact there was no credit given to him at all for the work he did trying to maintain the fingerprinting of juvenile delinquents and offenders. The tremendous work he did there was quietly brushed under the carpet. 
There are also inconsistencies in Labour’s position. This bill and the minority report that I have just read were destined for the rubbish bin. I am now hearing talk that it will be revived. It is interesting for me because I am the chairman of the Law and Order Committee where we are currently hearing submissions on the new Government tagging bill. Now everybody wants the legislation. Everybody now wants it. We have a former Deputy Mayor of Manukau here. He must be a very confused man because all of his colleagues were against the bill. They were against all the great work his city did. They were against all the arguments he put up. They told George he was talking rubbish. They said he was a typical rightwing nutter in the Labour Party and told him: “Sit down and shut up. We don’t want to hear from you.” But I say to George Hawkins that he was right. He always was right. 
There are inconsistencies from the Maori Party. It is wonderful. We heard from Pita Sharples about the artistic ability of taggers and how we should not deny people the opportunity to express themselves. Compare that with what happened in September 2005 when a young 16-year-old was caught defacing—of all things—Pita Sharples’ own hoarding. What was the Maori Party reaction? Its members kidnapped the tagger. They kidnapped this kid. They threw him into—[ 
Interruption 
] I ask members not to believe me but to read the reports in the newspapers. Mr Sharples and his cohorts kidnapped this kid and held him hostage for hours—a 16-year-old. This is the same man who said “Don’t lower the age of criminal responsibility.” Now I get it; we just kidnap all the young offenders and lock them up. This is Dr Pita Sharples who for years has had a wonderful photograph on the Maori Education Trust Board website of himself with a full korowai moko mere and feather in the hair. That child did not accept that he could spread his artistic works over the finest buildings and memorials of this land but he must not dare graffiti Pita Sharples’ hoarding. He must not dare do that because Pita Sharples is special. Pita Sharples stands above all those things. Pita Sharples says people can express their artistic ability on other people’s homes other people’s cars other people’s fences and other people’s businesses but not on his pretty face. 
Here are all the newspaper reports about that; there are dozens of them all about a 16-year-old kid who did nothing more than express his artistic ability on Dr Pita Sharples’ face and for his troubles got kidnapped locked up and held hostage until John Tamihere and other people negotiated. That negotiation would have been interesting. I wonder whether they were going to send in the Special Tactics Group—a group from the police—to rescue this child. I wonder whether that crossed their minds and whether Pita Sharples would have leapt up and said: “It’s an abomination. It’s terrorising us—me. It’s terrorising. It’s the big long arm of the Pakeha law coming down and psychologically raping us all.” No he said nothing because Pita Sharples was so angry that he got graffiti on his face. 
Tame Iti who also expresses this sentiment about Pakeha law has graffiti on his face every day. Some of us would ask what gives him the right to wear a moko; I do not see any warrior qualities in that man whatsoever. But it is his choice. He can graffiti his face he can graffiti his car and he can graffiti his house and Dr Pita Sharples can support all that. 
But we now know—because Dr Pita Sharples does not support this bill—that the line gets drawn on Dr Pita Sharples’ own hoarding. The message is very clear out there for people in the Northern area when the election comes around. As far as Dr Pita Sharples is concerned people can graffiti anything except his hoardings. Thank you. 
I seek leave to table a wad of press comments about the kidnapping of the 16-year-old graffiti artist. 
Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House.