This was published 8 years ago
RACQ calls on Queensland government to get Wicked vans off roads
By Amy Mitchell-Whittington
The Queensland government needs to abandon "redundant" crackdowns on Uber and get Wicked Campers vans off our roads, the state's peak motoring body says.
RACQ executive general manager of advocacy Paul Turner said it was time to take a stand after hearing RACQ members had made complaints to the Advertising Standards Bureau about derogatory Wicked Campers vans but nothing had changed.
"There is a loophole where when it comes to the ASB they can't force compliance, so we thought now it is time for the Queensland government, particularly the Attorney-General's department, to step up and take action," he said.
"The ASB have guidelines in place. There are legally defined and ethically understood guidelines in this space and other mediums have to operate in those guidelines.
The Premier says Queenslanders like good humour "but there is no place for sexist, misogynistic rubbish".
"All we are asking is for the Wicked vans to operate with the same restrictions."
Mr Turner said it was an "embarrassment" for Queensland at a time where the government was too involved with cracking down on ridesharing services like Uber.
"There seems to be no problem to get resources scrambled to cramp down on Uber, yet it seems there is nothing we can do about Wicked," he said.
"At a time when the government is spending millions of dollars a year, quite rightly, campaigning about domestic violence and issues around discrimination, we are allowing messages that are quite frankly offensive and degrading towards women.
The RACQ said said it was an "embarrassment" for Queensland at a time where the government was too involved with cracking down on ridesharing services like Uber.
"We think Wicked is a stain on our tourism industry and on our roads and it needs to be removed and cleaned up before it is allowed to operate."
Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said she understood the level of community concern and said her office was in consultation with stakeholders on the issue.
"I want to work with the Advertising Standards Board to find a solution that gets these slogans off the street," she said.