Aviation boss Shannon Wells questions Peter George’s election sign on major highway
We’ve all noticed election signs popping up across the state but one has drawn the attention of a businessman — and the Department of State Growth. Read his concerns.
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An illuminated sign for independent candidate for Franklin Peter George has raised the ire of a business leader and the Department of State Growth.
Shannon Wells, the managing director of Par Avion, who travels the highway daily, sought clarification from the Department of State Growth about whether the sign on a trailer on the Tasman Highway at Warrane was allowed.
In reply to Mr Wells, State Growth said that it was considering action to remove the sign..
“Under the Roads & Jetties Act 1935 the erection of any sign or banner, whether fixed or movable, on a state road reserve requires a permit, which the department does not issue for election campaign advertising signs or, more generally, signs of a political nature,” the department wrote.
“We have written to Peter George’s campaign multiple times asking for the removal of his signage, particularly his trailers, in the road reserve at multiple locations, including on the Tasman Highway.”
In response to another complainant, a Department of State Growth officer wrote: “Thank you for reporting political campaign advertising signage on the east bound side of the Tasman Highway, adjacent to Bounty Street.
“I can confirm that this trailer does not have a permit to be parked on the side of the highway.
We have logged a job into our maintenance database for our road contractor to action and remove the signage.”:
Mr George said his campaign had received “one letter from State Growth regarding election signage”.
“The letter was noted and the restrictions imposed were communicated with a volunteer base of more than 700 Franklin residents,” he said.
“We have asked our enthusiastic volunteers to observe these restrictions and note that care has been taken to comply.
“We have received no notification of concerns about lighting at corflute waves from any authority. Naturally, great care is taken not to impact road safety.”
Mr Wells said he had “no doubt’ the illuminated sign would divert attention from driving for other motorists because the sign was “floodlit”.
“It was a distraction for me,” he told the Mercury.
“I thought holy moly it’s an electronic billboard.”
He raised it on X.
“I’ve never seen this before,” Mr Wells posted.
“The cynic in me suggest I haven’t seen this before because it’s not allowed. What are the rules for this?
“While Peter George isn’t the only person who does this, I’ve never seen a sign illuminated before, and a person who is campaigning on “integrity” … is somewhat puzzling that his campaign would quite happily violate the rules.”
Mr George, meanwhile, said a number of his corflutes had been defaced across the electorate.
“We have more than 700 volunteers out across the electorate conducting a respectful, honest campaign and every single one of them understands that interfering with another campaign’s material is strictly off limits,” he said.
“Democracy demands a contest of ideas expressed in a civilised rather than destructive manner.
“That said, we’ve making the most of it where vandals have gone on to private land to deface our campaign corflutes.”
During the recent federal election, the Huon Valley Council was forced to apologise for wrongly removing one of Mr George’s election signs at Castle Forbes Bay.
Originally published as Aviation boss Shannon Wells questions Peter George’s election sign on major highway