Page 1466 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 24 March 2010
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are constantly covered in graffiti. Schools, bus shelters and backyard fences are all used as canvases by vandals time and again.
The fact that often the same facility or structure can be graffiti-ed over and over again is proof that the strategy adopted by this government is simply not working. Graffiti vandalism causes many individuals in our community a lot of anguish and sometimes cost, particularly when it is their private property or business premises that have been affected. In addition to being unsightly and illegal, graffiti vandalism also damages our local pride, the pride we have in our surroundings.
The ACT Neighbourhood Watch groups in Calwell and Theodore have long campaigned for a different approach to graffiti vandalism. Residents and members of the Neighbourhood Watch groups throughout Tuggeranong are sick and tired of their suburbs being the targets of vandals and are calling for a new plan. Nick Tsoulias, the Tuggeranong coordinator of Neighbourhood Watch, along with the Tuggeranong Community Council, is looking to conduct a graffiti forum to better understand the issues and to look at some solutions to this seemingly never-ending problem. I also know how keen Neighbourhood Watch are to investigate options adopted by councils and governments across Australia to combat graffiti. I know that Nick and other members keep a close eye on issues relating to the overall look of our suburbs and report issues as soon as they detect them immediately to the government. They conduct working bees and galvanise the community and make a valuable contribution to the ACT. In other words, they perform much of the role that the government and responsible departments should be performing. A letter to the editor published in the Canberra Times on 9 March says:
So Jon Stanhope cannot remember Canberra looking more divinely beautiful in the past 41 years … (March 6, p3).
All I can say is—
and I am quoting from the letter—
that he must live in a different Canberra than I do.
There is nothing beautiful about dead trees, weeds, cracked footpaths, neglected roads, overgrown laneways and graffiti covering buildings and fences, and unoccupied dilapidated government-owned buildings.
The reduction in the GST allocation for the ACT is an excellent opportunity for Stanhope’s Government to stop squandering money and to reallocate resources …
The letter goes on, but I will not embarrass Mr Stanhope any further. Just this afternoon I received—
Mr Stanhope: I’m not embarrassed a bit, Steve. I stick up for Canberra.
MR DOSZPOT: Well, you should be. You should be embarrassed, Chief Minister. I would be embarrassed if a letter like that came about the city that I was in charge of,
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