The story started when the government announced $600,000 for 15 different crime prevention projects around the state. One of them last year was at Hallett Cove, organised and now funded by the Marion Council, which aims to stop graffiti by giving prospective young vandals a legal outlet for their creativity. They have ‘aerosol art’ workshops and there’s even a canvas wall, as it were, supplied for the finished product.

In comes Ridgeway, sniffing too many paint fumes with a media statement headed “Graffiti culture feeds bikie gangs”.

He reckons that because the program “promotes graffiti art”, it encourages “gang activity and criminal anti-social behaviour”.

“Graffiti needs to be tackled as a criminal offence not encouraged with publicly funded programs that result in more crime” Ridgway burbled. “The correlation between graffiti offenders, the illegal drug trade and other criminal activity requires targeted effective police strategies.”

To claim that graffiti art leads people into the “illegal drug trade” and joining a bikie gang is ridiculous hyperbole.