KEY POINTS:
The Retailers' Association is expected to back sweeping anti-graffiti proposals as they head into law.
Spokesman Barry Hellberg told the Weekend Herald the Government "needs to be commended" for looking to introduce the plans nationally, rather than allowing local body authorities to make their own rules.
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday announced a raft of proposals, including a ban on the sale of spray cans to those under 18 and introducing a new offence of tagging under the Summary Offences Act.
The new offence will carry a maximum fine of $2000.
The changes would also require shopkeepers to keep spray cans secure so they could not be accessed without the help of shop staff, with a possible fine of $1500 for those who fail to comply.
Mr Hellberg said fines were fair enough, as shopowners would have plenty of time to comply.
"No bona fide retailer is going to greatly worry about that ... I think that New Zealand as a whole realises graffiti is a problem."
But Council of Civil Liberties president Michael Bott rubbished the measures as ill-thought-out laws designed to "create the perception of fighting tagging at the ballot box". The anti-tagging proposals were "pandering to the rednecks" in an election year.
"In this country, we make legislation very quickly, and on the hoof.
"All that is going to happen is older family members might go and buy the spray paint, or [the taggers] might get it from mum and dad's shed."
There was no guarantee that every teen trying to buy paint was a tagger, and Mr Bott was curious to know how the Government had settled on the age of 18.
One Herald reader, Savage, of Piha, said the move would simply create a black market.
Many handyman stores already operate voluntary bans on sales to minors.
Bunnings Warehouse general manager Brad Cranston confirmed the company had had a ban on spray can sales to under-18s for "a couple of years", and staff had been instructed to check age identification.
Mitre 10 Manukau manager Alan Gadsdon said Mitre 10 had also taken a hard line on minors trying to buy spray paint.
The company had had a ban on spray can sales to minors for at least 18 months, and staff had been known to refuse to sell cans to older people, too, Mr Gadsdon said.
"They don't stop [tagging] at 18."
He was not convinced the proposals would make much difference.
Helen Clark announced the new measures from Clendon Skate Park in the heart of Manukau City, a fact that irked three local councillors.
Manurewa councillors Anne Candy, John Walker and Colleen Brown described themselves as "somewhat perturbed" she chose such a well-known tagging site.
Australian Retailers Association spokeswoman Yvonne Anderson urged New Zealand shopowners to look at imposing voluntary sales restrictions rather than Government-imposed guidelines.
She said compliance costs for NSW shopkeepers after similar laws were introduced topped $2 million.
* LEGITIMATE USES
It is not only hoodie-wearing wastrels who use spray cans regularly.
A Weekend Herald check of handyman stores at opposite ends of Auckland showed the humble spray can was just the ticket for performing any number of jobs.
In cool, inner-city Ponsonby, spray-can paints are used for many purposes. Artists are particularly fond of using spray cans in their canvas creations, while youngsters use them in school projects.
Resprays of children's bikes fit the average paint can down to the ground, while others use the cans to cover blemishes on the BMW.
Down the Southern Motorway in Manukau, residents are busy using the cans to mark timber, touch up gold paint on gilt mirrors and even to patch fridge paintwork.
One Manukau mum had used the product to help refurbish a doll's house, while spray cans had also been used to touch up the barbecue and improve chromework.
* NOW YOU SEE ART, NOW YOU DON'T...
If a wall had eyes to see, ears to hear and lips to speak, what tales might it tell? Plenty, if it was the wall surrounding a large vacant site in Mt Eden's Kelly St.
The latest instalment involves Auckland City Council taking prompt action this week to paint out graffiti that referred to Mayor John Banks - a response not attracted by previous graffiti naming various MPs, despite the council's policy of "zero tolerance to graffiti vandalism".
The 100m wall surrounds a controversial 4558sq m site sold by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) to former employee Neil Wanden, who wants to build 22 luxury four-level townhouses.
Now the wall itself has become a cause for controversy.
Artists (up to 50 at one of two mural-painting parties) painted artworks on it. Among them were locals of renown, Murray Grimsdale and Orlando Clairmont (son of the late Philip Clairmont), and a talented young spray artist called "Ouch".
Clairmont says the mural painting was supported by local residents and done before the legal transfer of the property from the ESR. "After two years of an ugly grey wall constantly being tagged, we decided to brighten up our street."
Mr Wanden's contractors whitewashed over the murals. More murals were painted, one featuring the Robert Frost quote: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall". These, too, were whitewashed over.
The blank wall attracted taggers. Among the graffiti that ensued was a political message that appeared recently calling on the mayor to make a stand on "ethics and aesthetics".
On Wednesday the council painted out the tags on that section of the wall.
Paul Goldsmith, chairman of the community services committee, which deals with graffiti, confirmed the council's graffiti-removal contractors painted out a section of graffiti on the wall after a member of the public complained that it was offensive.
Although Mr Wanden's company usually removed graffiti from the wall, the council had acted because "their response at times can be erratic and the council has removed graffiti from this site in the past".
Graffiti on the remainder of the wall could not be painted out because "when the contractor arrived at the site ... cars were parked immediately adjacent to the footpath along part of the fence and could potentially [have been] damaged by the paint".
The rest was scheduled to be painted out today, he said.
Told that broken yellow lines and a small island stopped vehicles from parking next to a 20m section of graffitied wall just by that which was painted out, Mr Goldsmith said he could go only on what the contractor had told the council. "I don't think there is any great political ranking; we are just trying to get the place cleaned up," said Mr Goldsmith, who once was a parliamentary press secretary for Mr Banks and wrote the mayor's 1997 authorised biography.
As for the murals, Clairmont says council graffiti prevention officer Rob Shields had told him that research showed walls bearing art were less likely to be tagged.
Mr Wanden could not be contacted for comment.
Piano teacher Lorraine Petousis, whose home is next to the site, misses the murals. "I feel strongly that a wall that has artwork has life. I don't mean tagging. If we must have a wall, let it not be a blank lifeless space."
* Phil Taylor is a Herald journalist and Mt Eden resident who passes the wall daily, commuting to work.
