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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 4421 ..

MR WOOD: Thank you, Ms Tucker. I did hear all that. I did hear your comments on at least one of those issues, the one about Kambah. I am not so much sure about that background, but bear in mind that problems with graffiti can be reported by citizens. A phone call will have someone look at the problem.

I think I said yesterday that if it is offensive graffiti it can be removed within a day; otherwise, in a short space of time. In that circumstance, if we are talking about the tagging-which is the term I would use-that is how it can happen.

Ms Tucker: No.

MR WOOD: You are talking about the street art, are you? There is a more formal process with the street art by which Urban Services has allocated a range of sites where that street art may occur. I would expect there would be some communication there so that the clean-up team would know, in that circumstance, where there has been agreement for someone to put up their street art. I will clear those lines, for my satisfaction, and explain them to you.

I certainly know, with respect to Weston Creek, if that is the skate park, that there were a considerable number of complaints from people out in the community-I think I had some members contacting me about that as well-whose houses overlooked that. They didn't greatly love that artwork.

Maybe there was a problem there about giving approval for that site. That was the circumstance there. There is a fair point about whether the approval that DUS gives for certain sites is known by the people that might clean up the sites. I will check that through for you.

MR SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Tucker?

MS TUCKER: Yes, thank you. Related to that there is going to be a reduction in available spaces, with the Bunda Street redevelopment.

MR SPEAKER: Is that a question?

MS TUCKER: The question is: as you will be losing some legal spaces, how do you intend to provide more spaces? Do you have a plan?

MR WOOD: The information I have-I think it is correct; I will check it out to make sure I am not misleading anybody here-is that there are a whole lot more sites that have been approved and have been taken up. If people are dead-set keen about this, I would think there are sites that are available.

I think it is an issue that the Canberra community as a whole needs to discuss at some stage, and I think we need a balance between what street artists want to do and maybe what the whole of the Canberra community wants, as much as you can get a view on that. That is extending the answer to your question; it is the making of a statement by the minister, I suppose. At some stage we might need a bit of a community debate about the extent to which street art is able to extend throughout the city.

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