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NEWS
Wicked campers face Queensland ban
Queensland government to cancel vehicle registration of hire car operators that display offensive slogansProposed new legislation introduced into the Queensland Parliament will essentially force commercial operators that carry offensive slogans on their vehicles to remove them.
If they fail to do so within two weeks they "will have their registrations cancelled", the Queensland Government announced today.
The legislative changes target companies such as controversial, Queensland-based rental business Wicked Campers, which operates nationally and has already faced bans in other regions for sexist and derogatory slogans.
Although the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) has previously issued determinations that deemed companies including Wicked Campers advertising language offensive, a request to remove the wording was never enforced by law.
"With this legislation, vehicles registered in Queensland that display sexist, obscene or otherwise offensive advertising will face the prospect of having their registration cancelled," said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
She said the new legislation has been introduced to parliament after long-standing community concern about inappropriate advertising on vehicles.
In the past, the Queensland Premier has urged holiday makers to boycott Wicked Campers until it removed the messages, which include statements like: "In every princess, there's a little sl*t who wants to try it just once".
However, in mid-2014 Australia's former Human Rights Commissioner, Tim Wilson, defended the right of companies to use inappropriate slogans.
"Government shouldn't be going around telling people what they can and cannot say, unless it leads to direct and explicit harm," he said.
"Just removing things that are offensive, while it may seem attractive, is a very dangerous precedent at least because people always have very different views about what is offensive and therefore should be limited."
Queensland's Roads Minister, Mark Bailey, said the impending laws were firm and fair and would force operators to take the ASB's decisions seriously.
"Targeting these sexist, misogynistic and inappropriate slogans through registration cancellation has been an innovative solution.
"If the Advertising Standards Board (the Board) determines that an ad on a Queensland registered vehicle needs to be removed or modified, the registration holder will have a chance to make those changes.
"If those changes aren't made, the registration of the offending vehicle will be cancelled, simple as that," he said.
If passed in Queensland the legislative changes could pave the way for other states to follow suit.
"Queensland is leading the way in this space and we're working closely with other states and territories to promote a nationally consistent approach to vehicle registration laws on this issue," Bailey said.
Comment has been sought from Wicked Campers but the company is yet to respond.
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Written byFeann Torr
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Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
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