Page 1803 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 4 May 2005
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partnership program. These art workshops gave young people interested in graffiti art the opportunity to develop graffiti art skills in an environment that promotes legal graffiti art as a legitimate outlet for creating activity. A similar program is planned for 2005-06. As a result of this program, an addition four official mural sites are being established. Fifteen legal graffiti art sites have been identified on public assets and another 15 sites are currently being assessed for their suitability for legal graffiti art.
These sites have been developed in cooperation with graffiti artists and the community. Legal graffiti art sites recognise the role that graffiti plays in youth culture and provides the opportunity for graffiti writers and artists to express themselves in a responsible way, receive public recognition and practice their skills legally. Official murals, of which there are currently 30, including graffiti art pieces, have also been established on public and privately owned assets.
Murals play an important role in the community as they provide the opportunity for artists to demonstrate their creativity and skill, whilst reducing graffiti vandalism and enhancing the urban environment. The recent mural painted in Bible Lane shows the government’s commitment to working with the private sector and community artists to minimise graffiti in the community.
Here is a contrast. I went down and had a look. I will bet that Mr Pratt has not, unless he took a can with him. I would not know. It might have been a can of something to remove something. Who knows? I went down this lane and on the one side there is this massive great mural, a beautiful piece of art, a massive beautiful piece of art sponsored by Blades, the private business that is leasing premises on one side of this alleyway. On the other side of this alleyway, there is just writing. They are not offensive words. They are just tags. But it looks pretty ordinary and there are bills stuck there.
You tell me which one of those two pictures was in Canberra Times, with some person standing next to it saying “Isn’t this awful?” There would not have been 12 feet between the two of them. Did the Canberra Times put them both in? No. It got the owner of one of the clothing businesses to stand beside this dirty piece of graffiti outside a privately-owned asset. None of the graffiti was offensive. None of it depicted violence or racism, yet they bag the government for not removing it. It is not the government’s responsibility to remove it. Anybody who has a look at the law will see what it is we are responsible to remove. Mr Pratt says 24 hours to remove the offensive stuff is far too short.
Mr Pratt: I didn’t say that.
MR HARGREAVES: You said it was too long. I do not care. Either way you said it was not right. You were criticising the fact that we do remove the stuff in 24 hours, and we do. As soon as it is reported, it is actually checked out. If it meets the criteria, it is removed within 24 hours. About $1 million is provided for the ongoing graffiti removal program. Of that, $780,000 is spent on graffiti removal from assets within urban open spaces and $212,000 is spent on removal of graffiti from private assets in public view. But Mr Pratt reckons we are not doing enough.
The graffiti hotline—62072500—was established last year to coordinate all requests for the removal of graffiti from public and private assets. If you have had so many reports to
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