The NSW state government wants to jail people as young as 13 for carrying a can of spray paint. Anyone with a spray can and no "legitimate reason" could face up to six months in prison
The extreme punishment is part of new laws doubling the penalties for graffiti, including on-the-spot fines of $1100.
Premier Nathan Rees said the "hardline" laws were "tough, but necessary" on November 8.
He said, "graffiti is not a victimless crime — it makes people feel unsafe. It undermines community pride."
Exactly how a zero-tolerance approach that jails teenagers is all about "community pride" is unclear.
Rees is at the forefront of a misguided "war on graffiti". He had already expressed approval of locking up young people who even wrote on a brick wall with a texta.
When 18-year-old Cheyene Black was sentenced to three months' jail in February for writing on a wall, Rees said the sentence was "absolutely appropriate".
Yet this is familiar rhetoric. Graffiti "crackdowns" are a hallmark of right-wing governments that use tactics of moral panic and outrage to distract from unpopular policies.
Rees's popularity is at rock bottom, as his government pursues unpopular privatisation policies and even makes plans to build two new privately owned coal-fired power stations. His "war on grafitti" is a classic diversion tactic
Young people and subcultures that don't fit into the "mainstream" are easy targets for cops and conservatives alike.
They call it "anti-social". It's labelled "deviant".
But graffiti can express independent thinking and challenge mainstream ideas. It can be artistic and improve public space, encourage youth culture and add to social inclusion.
Last year, young Socialist Alliance activists ran under for local council under the slogan "stop the war on graffiti, start the war on climate change". Zane Alcorn, a Resistance member who ran for lord mayor, said conservative council members used rhetoric about graffiti so it could simply continue with business-as-usual.
"They whinge and whine about graffiti but they won't designate some more walls to be legal walls", he told Green Left Weekly. "It would cut down on illegal graf because it creates a safe space to practice your art without fear of the cops prosecuting you.
"It is the oldest and most popular art form on the planet and to presume that you can ban people from drawing on walls with textas, crayons, spray cans, charcoal or whatever is absurd."
Graffiti can also be a form of political protest. Culture jammers use graffiti to express disgust with offensive corporate advertising.
Ultimately, Rees's war on artistic expression in public places is another small-minded "law and order" campaign that offers no solutions.
But the government is deaf when most people want more funding for crippled public services, state electricity to be kept public and expanded public transport instead of freeways.
And in the face of dangerous climate change within our lifetimes, it is young people who have the greatest impetus to challenge the power of the governments who rule in the interests of the corporate rich.
Graffiti and street art can raise a voice among the clamour that seeks to distract us. It is a weapon of social protest young people must hold on to.