The New South Wales government ended on Tuesday its one year impasse with the Shooters Party over amendments to the state government's anti-graffiti legislation.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said the state government agreed to remove the provision that would remove the power of magistrates to strip young offenders of their driver's licence if they are caught writing graffiti.

However, he said despite agreeing to exclude that provision, NSW still succeeded in getting four out of five of its tough graffiti measures through. The state government initially vehemently opposed the removal of power from magistrates.

As a gesture of reconciliation, the two parties agreed that young vandals would have to face the court and be forced to clean their graffiti for the first offence. Magistrates are given the power to extend the time that the vandal would spend on provisional or learner licence and limit the number of demerit points they accrue.

In agreeing to the changes, Mr O'Farrell said NSW is trying a new approach to solve the state's vandalism problem.

"The community wants tougher laws around graffiti. I get more complaints about graffiti from people across communities in NSW than just about anything else, because it can happen to businesses, it can happen to their homes, it can happen to their homes, it can happen to their cars, and it just drives people mad," Fairfax quoted the premier.

NSW's legislature expects to pass the revised anti-graffiti legislation on Wednesday in the lower house.

RELATED STORIES