Two members of a Country Womens Association branch have painted over a Wicked Campers offensive slogan which encouraged sexual violence, reports The Guardian Australia.
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The women, who are members of the CWA branch of Kyogle in Northern NSW, took the law into their own hands after attempts to legally ban the vehicles from the area proved difficult to enforce. Bangalow CWA president Di Campbell told The Guardian her branch was, frankly, over it.
“Two of them went to the hardware shop and took direct action. Enough is enough. For us on the north coast we see a lot of these awful vans.”
The offensive vehicles were actually outlawed by the Byron Bay council in 2016, but enforcing the issue is difficult. According to The Guardian, Queensland and Tasmanian motor registries were granted the power to deregister any vehicle that does not comply with advertising standards, which would obviously include any Wicked Camper vehicles with offensive slogans.
But Wicked Campers has simply changed the vehicle registrations to other states once complaints are made, to avoid the issue.
Bangalow CWA president Di Campbell actually put forward a successful motion at the CWA Albury conference this year to eliminate offensive vehicle slogans like the Wicked Campers ones from NSW roads.
“If we are serious about treating women, and indeed everyone, with respect, and are serious about creating a community free of violence, sexism and racism, we need to vigorously campaign to have the NSW Government pass laws which ban this offensive advertising on vehicles,” Campbell said in a statement at the conference.
“It’s time every state took a stand on these unacceptable slogans and organisations like ours supported the changes necessary to eliminate this kind of disrespect from our communities. When statements and slogans degrade people and cause an enormous amount of offence, then it’s time to act,” CWA of NSW State President Stephanie Stanhope said.
The CWA was formed in 1922 to support women who were experiencing isolation and a lack of health facilities in rural Australia.
The Association has been responsible over the years for supporting the female communities of rural Australia, from setting up baby health care centres, funding bush nurses, and helping to fund local maternity wards, hospitals, schools and more. They’ve also worked tirelessly lobbying for governmental change, throwing their support behind a range of issues from drought aid to homelessness.
