Baird cops a spray about graffiti and lockout laws
New South Wales premier Mike Baird can’t seem to take a trick.
He is now under fire for his contribution to the state’s Graffiti Removal Day on Sunday encouraging communities and volunteers to clean up graffiti vandalism.
Baird, whose popularity has plummeted in wake of the state’s lockout laws, posted a photo of himself on his Facebook page pointing at a street painting. The mural, named Casino Mike, was painted by Sydney street artist Scott Marsh showing the Premier holding a glass of red wine and a cigarette. There’s a stack of casino chips and a bottle of Penfold's Grange Hermitage on a table in front of him.
Baird had a simple message next to the photo on his Facebook page showing him standing next to the mural: “Did you know that NSW has an official "graffiti removal day"? Well, it does. And it's today. Just saying.”
The response from the public was savage with more than 2000 comments on Facebook.
“It's street art not graffiti you detached fool!” “You know if you don't like something you can just get rid of it without contemplating the reasons. We also have an 'official removal day' it's called election day.” “I wish removing YOU along with the rest of your dollar sign-eyed party was just as simple. That mural sums you up quite accurately - greedy, arrogant and out of touch.”
Marsh has claimed that the mural was done to critique the unpopular lockout laws. The painting, he says, is popular because it reflects what everyone is thinking.
The painting is not only a comment on the lockout laws. Baird of course became premier after his predecessor Barry O'Farrell resigned over misleading the state's corruption watchdog about a gift of a $3,000 bottle of Grange from a lobbyist.
by Leon Gettler, 1st November 2016
