source : the age
An inner-Melbourne council is facing calls to overhaul its graffiti policy after revelations complaints about offensive graffiti are being blocked by security systems or diverted before reaching council staff.
Darebin councillors have been presented with a petition calling for a graffiti removal policy review after a Jewish resident spent six months trying to get the council to remove graffiti targeting Jewish people from a cafe wall near her home.
Darebin resident Natalie James, a former Fair Work ombudsman, appeared at a council meeting last Tuesday, after she first reported the graffiti, which included “F— Israel” and a crossed-out Star of David as well as “Free Palestine” and “Land Back”, last December.
The graffiti appeared days after the Bondi Beach terror attack which targeted the Jewish community and killed 15 people.
The council’s policy says offensive graffiti is deemed to be “priority one” and the aim is to remove it from council assets – and some private assets – within two days of a report being made.
Responding to James, Darebin’s general manager, infrastructure and operations, Rachel Ollivier, said reports made directly to the council could be “filtered out” by its security system, while complaints made through the phone app Snap, Send, Solve could be diverted depending on how they were categorised.
The revelation came after James asked the council to outline its operational response to reports of offensive graffiti, including what happens when reports are received by each of the three channels mentioned on its website.
The channels comprise Snap, Send, Solve, an email to a specific address or contact via telephone.
Ollivier acknowledged there were problems reporting offensive graffiti via email because of the filter. She also said some complaints made via Snap, Send, Solve might be failing to reach council staff.
“When [a complaint] is sent by Snap, Send, Solve, council is receiving reports about graffiti on our assets, like benches and footpaths and also on private fences and windows,” she said.
“But if it’s on an asset owned by a different government body, [like a post box or a power pole], it will go to the owner of that asset [not the council]. Not all of those asset owners will remove the graffiti.”
Asked if the council was trying to fix the flaw and allow offensive-graffiti complaints through its security system, a spokesperson said: “Council has already identified and fixed a number of issues affecting the reporting and removal of offensive graffiti.”
The council is now investigating a complaint made by James about how it manages reports of offensive graffiti, Ollivier told the council meeting on Tuesday night.
Offensive graffiti is defined as having the “potential to insult members or groups of the community and commonly includes defamatory or degrading remarks about race, religion, sex or personal privacy”.
On Tuesday, Darebin councillor Connie Boglis tabled a petition, organised by James, calling for a review of Darebin’s graffiti removal strategy, which has been in place since 2019.
The petition, signed by 13 people, was unanimously accepted for tabling. In a preamble, James, who is also former secretary of the federal Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, told the meeting she had worn a Star of David on a necklace for most of her life.
“Last year one appeared around my street but not as a sign of a synagogue, but as a centrepiece of hostile graffiti,” she said.
“I walked past it on the way to High Street most days.”
After the Bondi terror attack in December, she reported the graffiti to the council via Snap, Send, Solve. But it was still there in January, James said.
She contacted the council again, which told her to approach the property owner directly. James said she was told the council does not remove graffiti from private property.
“I was upset and in disbelief that Darebin would not act to ensure the wellbeing and safety of its Jewish community at such a heightened time,” she said.
“There were more phone calls, emails etc. Nothing [happened] until June 29 … [when] the graffiti was refreshed.
James said she “emailed and begged for action”.
After six months, the graffiti was removed. James said while staff were “helpful and polite” the policy “wasn’t clear, and the system wasn’t working”.
The petition calls on the council to establish and publicise a clearly identified, effective and actively monitored channel for reporting offensive graffiti in Darebin, regardless of asset ownership.
It also calls for the council to respond to individuals making reports of offensive graffiti within a “reasonable timeframe” and make “genuine reasonable endeavours” to remove graffiti within the response times listed in the current strategy.
A Darebin City Council spokesperson said offensive graffiti removal requests were a high priority for the council due to the impact on the community.
“The petition was formally received by council at [Tuesday’s] meeting and referred to the CEO for consideration and response. Until we work through the detailed request, we are not yet sure what actions can improve our service to support our community,” the spokesperson said.
James said she was pleased with the council’s engagement and felt it was taking the issue seriously. But she said information and guidance about how to report offensive graffiti was needed.
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