KEY POINTS:
The new anti-tagging bill was debated in Parliament yesterday with MPs likening taggers to animals marking their territory - but Act, the Maori Party and the Green Party opposed it as an electioneering stunt that picked on youth and would change very little.
Prime Minister Helen Clark announced the Government's new strategy to cut back on graffiti last week in the wake of the stabbing of 15-year-old Pihema Cameron allegedly during an altercation after he was caught tagging a garage.
The bill bans the sale of spraycans to people under 18, and makes graffiti a specific offence with penalties such as fines of up to $2000, and community sentences that include making taggers clean up their own work.
The bill passed its first reading in Parliament yesterday with support from Labour, the National Party, United Future and NZ First.
Justice Minister Annette King said graffiti was "destructive vandalism" and criticised arguments that graffiti was a form of self expression and art.
"In this country it is the talentless scrawl of nicknames. This reminds me more of an animal marking its territory that it does any real artistic talent. How can scrawling your name without permission on another person's property be considered art? Why should one person's need to express themselves outweigh another person's right to have their property remain tag-free?"
She said while the bill might not be "a panacea" for tagging, restricting the sale of spray paint would make access harder. However, Green MP Nandor Tanczos dismissed the bill as "a new low in dog-whistle electioneering" which would not achieve its purpose.
He said tagging was "annoying, like cat spray, like a tom cat marking its territory", but cracking down on teenagers was not the solution.
"If they can't get spraycans, do we really think they won't use markers, stickers, etchers, scratchers and stencils? Does this Parliament really think spraycans are so dangerous they have to be treated on a par with cigarettes and guns?"
Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell criticised the bill, saying it stigmatised young people and did not provide them with alternatives to tagging.
"This bill is but symptomatic of our general attitude towards young people. We have sat in this House, and listened to endless kauhau on the evils of text bullying, youth crime, youth gangs, boy racers, youth drinking, and even a debate about whether young people should be allowed to vote."
He said the Maori Party acknowledged tagging was antisocial behaviour. However, a blend of measures to thwart taggers, such as sensor lighting, providing more spaces where taggers could freely work, and taking a restorative justice approach were more constructive.
National's crime spokesman, Simon Power, said his party would support the bill at the first reading, but queried how the new measures differed from the current law against defacing property, for which $2000 fines and up to three months prison could be handed down.
United Future leader Peter Dunne also supported the bill, but said the select committee should look to international tagging measures to ensure New Zealand's were not extreme and did not "impose unnecessary restrictions on the good and the honest".
Act joined the Maori Party and Green Party in opposing it, with MP Heather Roy describing it as "election year grandstanding" which simply replaced already existing laws.
She said tagging was often prompted by teenage rebellion, gang association, a cry for attention, peer pressure, truancy or poor school achievement. The bill was referred to the law and order select committee with a report-back date of April 21.
