Years of complaints finally sees NSW Parliament pass a law banning sexist and offensive slogans on vehicles

New section in Road Transport Act 2013 No 18

Echo NetDaily, 23 October 2020:

Sexist and offensive slogans on vehicles, such as Wicked Campers, have now been outlawed after the Road Transport Legislation Amendment Bill 2020 was adopted by parliament on October 21. 

Local MP Tamara Smith (Greens) said it was a ‘great win’, with Greens amendments being adopted. 

Within her speech on the bill, she said, ‘People in the Ballina electorate who have advocated on this issue consider it a very positive change in the law. Di Campbell, former president of the Bangalow Country Women’s Association, wrote to me and said, “There is no place for slogans which promote sexism, racism and violence against women. Driving behind them with children must be extremely difficult for parents to explain. Many have slogans which are ever so sexist and thoroughly demeaning to women”. 

‘Paul McCarthy, who campaigned very strongly in Byron Bay, wrote to me and said, “Can you please help a poor old grandfather who is trying to clean up his town of Byron Bay. All he wants to do is to be able to walk down the street with his granddaughters and not read signs using obscenities”. 

In 2014, The Echo reported that a federal Greens motion was unanimously passed in the senate, which followed a hugely successful change.org petition. It was sparked by an 11-year-old girl who objected to the slogan, ‘In every princess, there’s a little slut who wants to try it just once,’ which she noticed painted on the back of a Wicked Camper van.