Mallard Trevor: Hutt City Council (Graffiti Removal) Bill — First Reading 
Mallard Trevor: Hutt City Council (Graffiti Removal) Bill — First Reading 
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Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 I move  
That the Hutt City Council (Graffiti Removal) Bill be now read a first time. 
 The Hutt City Council (Graffiti Removal) Bill is a local bill from the Hutt City Council which if people are not aware is for the area of Lower Hutt. It is a bill that is coming in following I think one of the most extensive campaigns on graffiti during the local body elections on the part of Ray Wallace who was successfully elected mayor at the last local body elections. I think it is fair to say that there were several points of differentiation in the campaign but graffiti was one of them that the public took to heart and one of the things that Mayor Wallace promised was to attempt to get as much of the graffiti off as possible down in the city both from public and from private places. He has made considerable progress in this and this bill is I think part of a bigger approach. There has been money budgeted for painting out graffiti. There has been a positive approach with young people in order to attempt to divert them from doing negative graffiti into doing things that are more constructive like murals and painting. One of the areas that in fact has been there for some time is this superb mural in the old village at Wainuiomata of Tana Umaga and Piri Weepu which has been done by the young local artists. It is absolutely clear that no one goes near that mural with any question of any graffiti because it is something that is held proud to the hearts of the people at Wainuiomata. It is something of their favourite sons done mainly by a number of young people.  
The Hutt does have a graffiti problem; there is no doubt about that. I think many communities do. There have been indexes and people do measures and it is fair to say that we are not as bad as the old Auckland City and some other parts of Auckland but it is something that residents are unhappy with. As I say a lot of progress has been made. One of the areas that we did discuss before the local body elections—and this bill was introduced last year—was the problem that the council had with private owners often absentee owners quite often owners of buildings that are semi-abandoned. There are places where there have been businesses in the past. Very occasionally sometimes there are houses that have been burnt out or have not been used and they have become the target for vandals and for graffiti. The problem has been—and the problem is—that there is not a right for the council to go on to the land and to paint out the graffiti in order to ensure that the area looks better.  
Just to make it absolutely clear I am working on the assumption that people understand that this bill will go to the Local Government and Environment Committee at the conclusion of this.  
There was a problem with privately owned property and we do have within the Hutt a number of absentee landlords. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: State houses. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: It is not so much houses; it is more often old commercial buildings. With the development of some of the more successful malls there are some old shops around that are not used. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Housing New Zealand is an absentee landlord these days. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: With the Housing New Zealand Corporation you might have to go to Mumbai to get the phone answered but that is not the point of this bill. The Summary Offences Act does work quite well at catching offenders but it does not give permission to councils to go on to that private land.  
The way this bill has been set out the requirements are pretty clear. There is a requirement to remove graffiti but before that notice has to be given. Ten days’ notice has to be given. One of the problems sometimes is trying to find the owners and therefore there are some requirements to give the notice in writing and to be specific about what the council intends to do and when it intends to do it. It has to make reasonable attempts to consult. When it serves a notice it has to either give it to the person or send it to the person by fax or email at the latest address and also do that for a company.  
I want to acknowledge the support that was indicated earlier by the other Hutt member Holly Walker. In fact formerly there was actually a third Hutt member. He is not currently in the House but is just waiting to get in with someone going to London and someone else dying a couple of heartbeats away: Mr Quinn. There was a political unanimity on this but Holly Walker has pointed out—and it is something that I would like the select committee to consider and look carefully at—the fact that graffiti is not defined within this bill. There is a question about whether it needs to be whether in fact it is defined in some other places or whether there is a common law interpretation of graffiti that will actually work for the purpose. As I have indicated to the member the short answer is that I do not know and it seems to be a very good thing for the select committee to have a good look at to make sure that it is satisfied. I think it is fair to say that neither the Hutt City Council nor I have such ownership of or are so wedded to the exact words in this bit of legislation that we would not be happy about having a change to make it effective and to make it clear—for example the Umaga and Weepu mural which I indicated before is on an abandoned building on something that has been left. There might have been some marginality about the legality of doing it but I would not want anyone to go painting over that mural because in my opinion certainly I do not regard it as graffiti. There are graffiti arts and graffiti artists and it is a matter of working through that and making sure that it works well.  
I would like to conclude in the way that I started by acknowledging Ray Wallace—the mayor—the work that he has done in this area and the leadership that he has shown. I do want to commend this bill to the House.