Push to ban corflutes knocked back by Adelaide City Council

Get used to seeing Federal Election corflutes across the Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide — after a bid to ban them was knocked back.

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• The Advertiser’s weekly federal election podcast
• Christopher Pyne dismantles the great Corflute Pyramid

Corflutes will remain on display in Adelaide City Council territory during election time after a bid to ban them was knocked back.

At its latest meeting, the council rejected — by a vote of six to five — Cr Robert Simms’s proposal aimed at “outlawing” such “pollution”.

That slender majority of councillors argued corflutes supplied a low-cost form of promotion. One advocate, Cr Jessy Khera, welcomed their presence on city streets as a “celebration of democracy”.

“There are places where corflutes are banned — and that is in communist dictatorships,” he said.

“I am certain our constituents have about 1000 issues that are more important and more concerning than this sort of nonsense.”

According to the Local Government Association of South Australia, the signs must not restrict the road or endanger the safety of members of the public.

They cannot be larger than one square metre and must be designed, made and presented in a “quality manner” so as not to become a danger to roadusers and end up as litter.

They are not allowed on the South Eastern Freeway, the Southern, Port River and Northern expressways, and the North-South Motorway.

There is a depot in Newton where all corflutes used in South Australia can be recycled

Cr Simms had argued for the ban to “level the playing field” and cut down on litter.

“At a time when we are increasingly concerned about the use of plastic in our city, it seems wrong that we see plastic signage like this on our city streets,” he said.

His motion was endorsed by Cr Phil Martin.

Considering that states elsewhere in Australia had banned corflutes, he said, Adelaide City Council should follow.

“The city is plastered with faces, in many cases faces only a mother can love, for many, many weeks,” Cr Martin said.

“As much as it is a part of democracy, I think it is time to recognise that we are out of step with many other places.”

Retiring Adelaide MP Kate Ellis and outgoing Defence Minister Christopher Pyne last week called for the posters to be banned to stop annoying voters, distracting them from policy discussion, and wasting resources.

But, with support from such champions as Cr Franz Knoll — who saw them as a cheap way of engaging community response — the Simms motion failed and the corflutes narrowly triumphed.