Toowoomba federal election signs targeted by vandals, pranksters already as campaign continues.

Thousands of corflutes and political signs have already been hammered into the ground across Toowoomba — and plenty of them have been pulled down and vandalised by pranksters, including with googly eyes.

UPDATE: The federal election campaign is not even five days old and Toowoomba candidates are already dealing with the issue of defaced or missing political signs and corflutes.

Incumbent Garth Hamilton and opponents Gen Allpass and Suzie Holt have all reported dozens of signs being pulled out of the ground or vandalised.

These include corflutes being sprayed with tomato sauce, scribbled on or even having googly eyes stuck on them.

Mr Hamilton said the trend was an unfortunate reality of campaigning, with the LNP member expecting to lose potentially hundreds of signs this year.

“As an estimate, we lose around 30 per cent of our corflutes every single election,” he said.

“It’s an unfortunate part of the election, it would be great if people aren’t knocking those down.

“This is an unfortunate part of campaigning.”

Ms Holt, an independent backed by new grassroots group Voices of Groom, called on all candidates and their supporters to show respect for each other during the six-week election campaign.

“We will be our best selves. That is what we have tried to do from the beginning of this campaign,” Ms Holt said.

“Some people might think it sounds naive and that this is the way that politics has always been done, but people want to see a higher standard of behaviour in politics than what has become the norm.

“I am running because our community wants to see a higher standard of representation in our region.

“I call on all candidates for Groom to make a pledge that we will focus on putting forward our ideas for the region and inform our supporters that low standards of behaviour won’t be tolerated.”

ALP candidate Gen Allpass said vandalism of signs was very disheartening, especially since they needed to be collected, fixed or replaced by members of the community.

“It’s very disappointing. It happens every election and it’s people like my elderly father who put them out, who then have to go and fix them,” she said.

”For people to vandalise and pull them down, it’s disappointing.

“It’s not the party machine that puts them out, it’s people from the community who do it.”

Independent Kirstie Smolenski was contacted for comment.

EARLIER: Toowoomba residents are about to be hit with thousands of political signs on their daily commute in the lead-up to the federal election, in a practice many residents don’t feel sways their vote.

All seven candidates, including the LNP and ALP, have sent their followers out to erect corflutes at virtually every major street corner and thoroughfare in Toowoomba.

Incumbent MP Garth Hamilton couldn’t confirm his exact number of signs, but observations would indicate he has potentially more than 1000 signs at play.

The ALP”s candidate Gen Allpass confirmed she had 500 signs ready, most of them funded by small donations from supporters and cake raffles.

The Greens’ Mickey Berry will have about 150 corflutes distributed across the seat of Groom, while noncandidate United Australia Party signage is already spread far and wide.

One Nation’s Grant Abraham said he had about 200 corflutes to distribute, while UAP candidate Melissa Bannister did not specify her numbers.

Meanwhile, independents Suzie Holt and Kirstie Smolenski have each forked out money for 500 signs each, as they push to make the seat more marginal by drawing in major party voters.

It comes as readers of The Chronicle argued the practice did little to convince them to vote for a particular candidate.

Responding to The Chronicle’s question online, many residents said the practice also created a lot of visual distractions for motorists, along with contributing to a cluttered streetscape.

“If you need a sign to convince you who to vote for, you have got a problem,” Malcolm Pidgeon wrote.

“They can if they are annoyingly placed or obstructing view when driving, when they are not collected after the election or not maintained,” Elle Freeth noted.

“It’s a poor use of resources, and they are literally just littered about the streets,” Cheyanne Jasmine Phillips added.

Independent Kirstie Smolenski seemed to agree with the sentiment, saying she felt there were better ways to advocate yourself and your policies.

“After the 2020 council election I claimed that this is archaic and polluting advertising,” she said.

“It needs to be capped and have designated areas to display them.

“I am also recycling other council candidates’ old signs.

“Other than that, unfortunately, I need to do it because others do it.”

There has already been evidence of sign vandalism, with fellow independent Suzie Holt noting several of her corflutes had been defaced.

The Voices of Groom-backed candidate called on residents to show respect for the signs.

“We will be our best selves. That is what we have tried to do from the beginning of this campaign,” Ms Holt said.

“Some people might think it sounds naive and that this is the way that politics has always been done, but people want to see a higher standard of behaviour in politics than what has become the norm.

“I am running because our community wants to see a higher standard of representation in our region.

“I call on all candidates for Groom to make a pledge that we will focus on putting forward our ideas for the region and inform our supporters that low standards of behaviour won’t be tolerated.”

Ms Holt also dispelled a rumour she had heard that her candidacy was backed by a larger lobby group.

“It has been suggested that our campaign is being funded by Simon Holmes à Court’s Climate 200 lobby group,” she said.

“This could not be further from the truth.

“Our campaign is a true community, grassroots effort that has been funded by family and many generous individual donations, in addition to my dedicated volunteers who have been working hard for months so we were prepared for this election campaign.”

Originally published as Toowoomba federal election signs targeted by vandals, pranksters already as campaign continues.