Boxer's blot on dame's canvas

By BERNARD ORSMAN

In one corner, David Tua, 110kg, aged 29, 32 knockouts, a devastating left hook.

In the other, Dame Barbara Goodman, aged 68, a featherweight but powerful force against violence.

This is not Las Vegas but ringside Auckland, where Dame Barbara, an elegant voice of liberalism in local politics since 1968, is taking on David Tua, boxer and role model in a poster campaign to "knock out tagging."

"It is a great pity we have to use someone who gets into a ring with someone else and their objective is to beat the daylights out of each other," she said.

Dame Barbara said she was not being an old fuddy-duddy. She had been against boxing all her life, and been involved in helping women victims of violence.

Since playing consort to her uncle and Auckland Mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson from 1968 to 1980 and becoming an Auckland City councillor in 1989, Dame Barbara has been chairwoman of the drug rehabilitation centre Odyssey House, involved with Women's Refuge, and patron of the Peace Foundation.

"I much bemoan the increase in violence and the increase in worshipping people in the boxing ring or on the rugby field who indulge in personal attack on each other."

In Las Vegas, Tua's manager, Kevin Barry, was not telling the Tuaman about the furore in Auckland. He wanted him to stay focused on his heavyweight title fight.

But Barry said Tua had been happy to be associated with fixing the problem of graffiti in Auckland.

"He has given generously of his time and done it from his heart for the betterment of the community in which he lives, and he has done it for free. People can never question his position as a role model because he has been an inspiration to youth.

"He has had eight years as a high-profile athlete and has never been in any trouble of any kind. He comes from a strong family background and holds strong Christian beliefs."

Doug Astley, the Auckland City councillor most closely involved in an $800,000 zero tolerance graffiti strategy starting this month, said the spiky-haired Tuaman was an excellent role model. "He is a good, clean guy and we are hoping his support will help some of the taggers think again about what they are doing."

Syd Atkins, whose communications company, Image Centre, sponsored 10,000 of the David Tua posters to the value of $10,000, said he had been happy to help stamp out graffiti in Auckland.

"If a guy like David Tua, who is known as a hard man, says he doesn't like graffiti it has got a good chance of getting through to the taggers."

Even Dr Pippa MacKay, chairwoman of the Medical Association, said that although her organisation was opposed to boxing, David Tua was the sort of person taggers could identify with and use as a model for leading a better life.

The posters are also going to Manukau and Waitakere City councils, schools and hardware shops.