ACT: Graffiti row headed for the courts

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2007
ACT: Graffiti row headed for the courts

CANBERRA, April 19 AAP - ACT opposition politician Steve Pratt has told staff in a
government department to "get their stat decs ready" in a row over Mr Pratt scrubbing
off a commissioned mural in his war on graffiti.

On Saturday Mr Pratt scrubbed off the mural near a cemetery in the southern suburb
of Woden, thinking it was graffiti.

But the stunt backfired disastrously when Chief Minister Jon Stanhope called for a
police investigation into the destruction of the artwork.

Worsening the problem for Mr Pratt, a community arts spokesman said yesterday Mr Pratt
had been warned the mural was not to be removed.

But Mr Pratt denied ever speaking to anyone from the ACT Community Art program.

Last night he told AAP he would be taking the matter further and called on the community
art workers to sign statutory declarations, outlining the exact conversations they claim
to have had with him.

"They'd better get their stat decs ready," he said.

"It's absolute bullshit, you can quote me on that."

AAP pv/jl/mn

KEYWORD: GRAFFITI DAYLEAD

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