Environment Minister David Speirs will not use corflutes at this state election

Signs placed everywhere by candidates and their parties are an eyesore every election but one MP is dumping them – and has challenged his rivals to do the same.

Corflutes outside the election booths

Environment Minister David Speirs has taken a stand against election posters by vowing he will not use them during the upcoming campaign – and challenging his opponents to follow suit.

Mr Speirs said the decision was in line with views of voters, and to use the posters would be “hypocritical” given his previously vocal stance against the practice.

A Bill that would have limited use of corflutes was supported by the Greens but voted down by Labor and members of the crossbench last year.

It would have meant candidates or parties could have only displayed a maximum of four corflutes within 50m of polling booths.

“I have to follow position that I took. I would have felt very awkward this weekend putting pictures of my face on Stobie poles given the fact that I headed that campaign,” Mr Speirs, said on Friday.

“I’ll be following what our legislation sought to create, which was banning them on public property, which is Stobie poles, telegraph poles, light posts, things like that.

“It will be up to my opponents in my seat – Labor, Greens, whoever else – to make a difficult decision to put these up in the face of very obvious community opposition to it and in stark contrast to myself.”

A writ for the March 19 state election will be issued on Saturday, triggering caretaker mode and the official start of the election campaign.

Under current law, election corflutes may be displayed throughout that four-week period.

Mr Speirs, who will focus his campaign on other strategies such as letterboxing and social media, said he was not aware whether other Liberal candidates had made the same decision.

Corflutes are often displayed prominently outside the election booths.

“I’ve spoken to a few colleagues about it and some of them have indicated they’ll take perhaps a more limited approach than in the past,” he said.

Mr Speirs’ announcement comes after two independent upper house candidates, Colin Shearing and Carol Haslam, declared in a press release on Thursday that they would not display election posters.

“Corflutes are bad for the environment, ineffective and a lazy form of electioneering,” the pair said.

Opposition environment spokeswoman Susan Close said Labor candidates would continue to use corflutes this election, but she and several colleagues would reuse posters from previous campaigns.

“Labor has an agreement for any surplus corflutes to be returned to the printer, and recycled into products including furniture,” she said.

“We also require all our volunteers to clean up when taking them down, to avoid any waste in the litter stream.”

Greens MLC Robert Simms said the party would continue using corflutes given the rules have not changed, but would be “taking steps to try and recycle our corflutes”.