Offensive camper vans to be defected under new laws

New legislation introduced into the Queensland Parliament will essentially force commercial operators who carry offensive slogans on their vehicles to remove them.

If they fail to do so within two weeks they "will have their registrations cancelled", according to a press statement issued by the Queensland Government today.

The legislative changes target companies such as Wicked Campers, a Queensland-based commercial vehicle hire company that operates nationwide and has previously made headlines for featuring sexist and derogatory slogans.

Although the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) has previously issued determinations that deemed companies including Wicked Campers advertising language offensive, a request to remove the wording was never enforced by law.

"With this legislation, vehicles registered in Queensland that display sexist, obscene or otherwise offensive advertising will face the prospect of having their registration cancelled," said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

The new legislation has been introduced to parliament after long-standing community concern about inappropriate advertising on vehicles, said Premier Palaszczuk.

In the past, the Queensland Premier has urged holiday makers to boycott Wicked Campers until it made changes to the derisive slogans, one of which reads: "In every princess, there's a little sl*t who wants to try it just once".

Palaszczuk previously stated the response to ASB decisions from hire car operators displaying offensive language was often a "deafening silence".

For years the issue of offensive language on hire vehicles has caused community uproar but in mid-2014 Australia's former Human Rights Commissioner, Tim Wilson, defended the right of companies to use inappropriate slogans.

"Government shouldn't be going around telling people what they can and cannot say, unless it leads to direct and explicit harm," he said in July, 2014.

"Just removing things that are offensive, while it may seem attractive, is a very dangerous precedent at least because people always have very different views about what is offensive and therefore should be limited."

Queensland's Roads Minister, Mark Bailey, said the impending laws were firm and fair and would force operators to take the ASB's decisions seriously.

"Targeting these sexist, misogynistic and inappropriate slogans through registration cancellation has been an innovative solution.

"If the Advertising Standards Board (the Board) determines that an ad on a Queensland registered vehicle needs to be removed or modified, the registration holder will have a chance to make those changes.

"If those changes aren't made, the registration of the offending vehicle will be cancelled, simple as that," said Bailey.

Although the new legislation has not yet been approved it's unlikely to be blocked and could pave the way for other states to follow suit.

"Queensland is leading the way in this space and we're working closely with other states and territories to promote a nationally consistent approach to vehicle registration laws on this issue," added Bailey.

Comment has been sought from Wicked Campers but the company is yet to respond.

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