As print and sign companies begin to deliver hundreds of thousands of printed plastic corflute signs for candidates in the upcoming federal election, independent South Australian Senator Rex Patrick has called for a permanent ban on their use in all future state and federal election campaigns. Wideformat Online disagrees with him.

 Disclaimer by Wideformatonline.com Publisher Andy McCourt

The following news release came from the office of Senator Rex Patrick of the Rex Patrick Team political party. It containes strident language and cancel-culture emotive phraseology unsubstantiated by proof. We acknowledge Sntr. Patrick's democratic right to vent his opinions, and also to have, or not have, his 'mug' on any poster he wants, but in the interest of accuracy, we wish to note the following:

The announcement reads: "Corflutes are environmentally wasteful,” says Senator Patrick. “They’re an eyesore along our roadsides. Putting corflutes up on stobie poles (the Stobie Pole was an Adelaide invention used for carrying electrical cables),  can be dangerous for the volunteers that mount them and the cable ties used to attach them can be harmful to our wildlife.

"They’re an expensive and environmentally destructive vanity exercise, fuelling the insatiable demand for money that corrupts our political life. I'm promising you'll not see my mug on any stobie pole (ibid.) in the coming election campaign.”

Patrick said South Australians have just faced “a tidal wave of visual pollution during the State election campaign…they don't need another six weeks of vanity posters staring at them as they drive about the streets.

“Corflute mania has long been a feature of our election campaigns, but enough is enough. We have to ban them. There's no evidence that they do anything to help voters. This is a political arms race in which it appears everyone is firing blanks.”

Patrick said that after the South Australian Marshall Government failed to secure Parliamentary approval for restrictions on election corflutes, “an advertising contest spread across Adelaide’s suburbs, along our major roads and through other SA cities and towns for the recent state election campaign."

      Independent SA    Senator Rex Patrick

After the State election, thousands of corflutes were dumped into rubbish bins and landfill, he said.

Noosaville, Queensland-based Focus Banners is one of many sign companies now offering paperboard signs as a “sustainable paper replacement for foam board and corflute.”  Focus says its recyclable Oppboga Board is water-resistant but not recommended for damp or humid outdoor conditions, unless in a frame.

Last year, Brisbane City Council introduced new restrictions for election signs and corflutes on private property and at polling stations, reversing a six-year old ruling that allowed for unlimited election signage.

“The major political parties don’t care about our environment,” Senator Patrick says. "They’re happy to foul SA landscapes with pictures of grinning political drones. And they’re all too happy to be beholden to big political donors who fund all this waste."

A Corflute fact sheet is available on this link for all to view, including Senators.