The Outdoor Media Association has welcomed the Queensland government’s inquiry into sexually explicit outdoor advertising as public hearings have commenced.
The inquiry will review the effectiveness of the outdoor advertising industry’s current self-regulatory system, which the OMA says has balanced community and economic responsibilities. Charmaine Moldrich, chief executive of the OMA, believes the OMA has got the balance right and says the outdoor advertising industry is community-minded, particularly in regard to children, and is compliant with all State and Local Government regulations.
She says, “The OMA shares the view that children are an important stakeholder when reviewing the appropriateness of outdoor advertising. We have worked closely with the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) and the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) to improve the self-regulatory system over the last two years – in 2012, 99.99 per cent of the outdoor advertisements that ran in Queensland were deemed compliant.
“We take breaches very seriously and any advertisements found to be in breach of the industry’s 12 self-regulatory codes are removed as quickly as practicable and are not re-posted. This proven track record demonstrates the outdoor advertising industry can be relied upon to comply with self-regulatory systems, and it is this current record that we’d like this Inquiry to focus on.”
The Queensland government inquiry will report on whether reform, including legislative reform, is necessary.
There have previously been calls for the $115 million outdoor advertising industry in Queensland to move to a legislative framework – a move that the OMA says would have a far reaching impact, for minimal results. Moldrich says, “The impact of a legislative framework, like a classification system, would be minimal as the industry is already achieving a near-perfect record, especially given the significant resourcing requirements a system like this requires.
“The outdoor advertising industry ran more than 12,000 different advertisements in Queensland in 2012. Under a classification framework, each of these advertisements would need to be reviewed, and approved. Introducing this kind of red tape would prove costly for the government, taxpayers, and the many small businesses that use and work within the outdoor advertising industry.
“We’d like to see the current self-regulatory system maintained so the industry can quickly respond to changes in circumstance, or community attitudes. Furthermore, legislative regulation will put Queensland out of line with other states in Australia, and goes against international best practice.”
Following a similar Federal Parliamentary Committee Review in 2011, the OMA contributed $1.6m to the ASB to assist the Board in promoting their complaints process, introduced a new Content Review Policy to regulate questionable advertising, and conducts content training with the ASB and AANA.
Moldrich says the outdoor advertising industry saves local governments $10.43m per year in capital expenditure, including upgrades and maintenance on outdoor advertising sites including bus shelters, bench seats, and bicycle stations.
The OMA, a national industry body, represents most of Australia’s out of home media display companies and production facilities, as well as some media display asset owners.
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