19 June 2019
Sarah Atkinson
FYI
Dear Sarah
Thank you for your request made under the Local Government Official Information and
Meetings Act 1987 (the Act), received on 23 May 2019. You requested the following
information:
1. Please provide me all correspondence in 2019, to and from the council about
graffiti, including stencils, posters, chalk, placards and stickers, relating to the
NZDF. To avoid confusion, this includes graffiti mentioning the ongoing inquiry into
Operation Burnham, the NZSAS, Geoffrey Palmer, Tim Keating, and the NZSAS
raid on a village in Afghanistan.
2. Please also provide any information you hold relating to the poster on Molesworth
Street on Wednesday 22 May, which referred to the inquiry as a circus.
3. Please provide any policies and internal guidance relating to graffiti. Please include
any changes to the policies made in the last two years. To avoid confusion, this
would include temporary directions, such as ones relating to graffiti about the
Christchurch white supremacist terror.
In regards to your first two questions, the Wellington City Council does not have any
correspondence relating to graffiti about NZDF, we also have no information relating to the
post on Molesworth Street.
In line with section 17(b) of the Act; I refuse these parts of the request as the information
does not exist.
In response to your third question, I have attached our Graffiti Management Plan which
aims to ensure graffiti vandalism is managed consistently across the Council.
Our main contractor has a standard response time of 3 days for non-offensive graffiti, and
4 hours for offensive graffiti (within business hours).
The only changes we have made in the last 2 years are the temporary changes regarding
the positive messaging following the shootings in Christchurch.
In recognition of the tragic events in Christchurch, we decided to ask our contractors to
leave positive messaging in the public realm until we created a wall of remembrance. We
encouraged people to show their support through signs, banners and flags and developed
the Wall of Aroha on the Civic Square side of the Town Hall where people could leave
supportive messages in chalk.
Right of review
If you disagree with my decision you have the right, under section 27(3) of the Act, to ask
the Ombudsman to review and investigate my decision. Further information is available on
the Ombudsman website, www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Thank you again for your request
Regards,
Ana Nicholls
Assurance Advisor
Wel ington City Council | 2 of 2
