Editing Graffiti (section)

=== New Zealand ===

[[File:Christchurch Stock Yards.jpg|thumb|Former Christchurch stock yards]]

In February 2008 [[Helen Clark]], the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in [[Auckland]] during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of [[manslaughter]].