Can the corflutes: LGA pushes State Government for election poster ban
The Local Government Association wants roadside election corflutes banned – or at least strictly regulated. Are they visual pollution or a fundamental part of elections?
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Election corflutes should be banned from South Australian roadsides, according to the state’s peak local government body.
Councils backed the push from Campbelltown for election posters to be scrapped – or at least subject to stricter regulation about their placement – at the Local Government Association AGM on Thursday.
The group will now lobby the State Government for changes to the law.
While state laws regulate the placement of corflutes, it falls under the Local Nuisance and Litter Control Act, which makes it a council responsibility.
Kangaroo Island Mayor and former Finniss MP Michael Pengilly backed the move, telling the meeting corflutes were “enormously expensive” and an “absolute pain in the bum”.
“I think we’re well past corflutes,” Mr Pengilly said.
“Social media is taking over for a lot of election campaigns whether that be federal, state or local.
“That’s the way of the future and environmentally (corflutes) are a disaster.”
Unley Mayor Michael Hewitson, however, objected on the basis that corflutes raised the profile of otherwise “almost anonymous” council elections.
“Our vote is pathetic,” Mr Hewitson said.
“We get about a third of the people voting in council elections. The one sign of anything happening is the corflutes on the poles.”
Free political communication is an implied freedom under the Australian Constitution.
However, New South Wales has laws banning the placement of election corflutes on any property without the express consent of its owner or occupier – including power poles.
The state’s largest energy distributor, Ausgrid, withdrew its consent for corflutes to be placed on its poles in 2015 and threatened offenders with a $50 removal fee – effectively ending the roadside signs in NSW.
South Australia has similar laws, but SA Power Networks and the Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure have provided general approval.
In a report to members, LGA governance and legislation director Alicia Stewart said other states had “far greater restrictions” than SA and it was worth gauging the government’s interest in stricter rules.
She wrote that such laws do “burden the freedom of political communication to some degree” but “the preservation of roadside amenity, protection of road safety, and reduction in costs to councils, are arguably all legitimate ends that may justify the restriction”.