The Beagle Editor,
As the person who put up most of the Liberal poster on trees I am intrigued by the selection of pictures posted in a recent article, targeting Liberal advertising to the exclusion of all else.
All of our posters were tied to trees causing no harm. They are only an affront to those opposed to Dr. Kotvojs. If they were in contravention of the Electoral Act then so are all the Labor posters up and down the Princes Highway. Even more so are those affixed to power poles, entirely illegally.
We have removed those of ours deemed inappropriate by the Commission and which had not already been vandalised. Accordingly we are expecting them to notify the Labor Party of the need to remove theirs.
All of our election material is correctly authorised, unlike the rash of crude, hand-painted signs littering the highway from Narooma to Bateman's Bay and SCREWED to trees. I find it ironic that a poster projecting an environmental message should be so fixed. Furthermore, these are anonymous, in contravention of the Electoral Act. Eurobodalla Council emailed me to say that their Rangers have been tasked with removing them. A week later they are still there.
The simple reason why I place our posters high in trees is evidenced by the repetition of vandalism, defacement, destruction and theft which has occurred to our posters placed at ground level.
Unidentified stickers have been pasted over them causing damage which renders many of them unusable. A display which was destroyed within a day of placement (next to a Labor poster) was again destroyed within 24 hours of its replacement.
There was once a measure of give and take in this area. Each party would display its messages for the brief period of a campaign and there was a lively competition for the best placements. Councils were tolerant, recognising the temporary nature of the event..
This has been supplanted by vicious partisanship where the exchange of ideas and rational debate has been overtaken by a brute desire to destroy all opposition using any means possible.
We are all the poorer for the propagation of this nastiness.
Alan Burdon
