Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak today on an issue that is very prominent in my electorate of Canning, and that is the cost to local business and local government of graffiti. It is costing them a fortune. For a long time I have been calling for the reinstatement of the Graffiti Taskforce because it is the only thing that works. Stamping out unwanted ugly vandalism must become a priority at neighbourhood, community and government level. There must be action taken against those blatant vandals to rid our streets of this growing scourge. Just as an example: a local businessman—a real estate agent—approached me only this week seeking greater assistance in stamping out graffiti and wanton vandalism in the Kelmscott and Armadale areas of my electorate. His building has been a constant target for vandals since its completion in January this year. After months of arduous removal, costing at least $8,000 last week, matters got worse when two windows were broken and the remaining nine windows scratched with graffiti. All these windows will now need replacing, at a cost of $13,000. Having to pay $21,000 for this is an outrage and unsustainable. This is a burden on businesses trying to make a go of it.

Small business owners should not be forced to consider moving to other, so-called cleaner suburbs to earn their livelihood. Local communities are frustrated that the police have not been resourced to act upon reports of vandalism and the problem has gotten much bigger at a local government level. It is bigger than they can handle, costing the Armadale City Council $200,000 a year to clean up. State-wide it is a $25 million problem. The previous state Labor government did nothing to clean up this problem. With its Goodbye Graffiti program, the clean-up process was slow and dysfunctional. Simply, the program just did not work, taking more than three weeks to clean up graffiti, and catching vandals became a very low priority. Labor pulled the funding from the previous Liberal initiative, called the Graffiti Taskforce, which generally took less than 24 hours to address a problem.

I have looked at a number of options—neighbourhood led action groups and local government funded groups—but it is the Graffiti Taskforce which is the most effective. It is time to take a tough stance against this kind of behaviour. I am calling on the new Liberal government to honour their commitment to immediately reinstate the Graffiti Taskforce and introduce tougher penalties for offenders and those selling spray paint to minors, as well as speed up removal. We know that the key deterrent is removing graffiti immediately, not giving the offenders the satisfaction of seeing their own handiwork. I am also urging Premier Barnett to honour his promise to introduce proof-of-age requirements for the purchasers of paint and harsh fines on businesses who offend and to increase penalties for repeat offenders to jail time and large fines.