The Australian Christian Lobby has welcomed the Queensland government’s decision to investigate penalties for outdoor advertisers who refuse to remove offensive advertising, but says more needs to be done.
In the wake of a state government parliamentary inquiry into sexually explicit outdoor advertising, the government has announced it is prepared to support the advertising industry’s self-regulatory system so that advertisers who do not comply with the Advertising Standard Board’s request to remove offensive advertising would be penalised. The government said it would “investigate enforcement options”.
Wendy Francis, the ACL’s Queensland director, welcomed the move which she said “responded to community concerns”. But she added that more needed to be done.
“The Advertising Standards Board is a self-regulated body. Currently they alone hand down rulings against its advertisers and there is no recourse once their decision is made…At the very least, we need a government avenue for people to go to if their complaint to the ASB is unsuccessful,” she said.
