Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill says “Wicked” campervans offend the sensibilities of Mountains residents and tourists and he wants them outlawed.
At the next council meeting on May 24 he will present a mayoral minute calling for a ban on the "Wicked" car rental campervans at council’s two caravan parks. He wants to “explore the options available to us to ban Wicked camper vans with [their] offensive, misogynistic, racial and degrading slogans from council-owned tourist (caravan) parks.”
He will also “call for the Australian government to take action to get rid of these vans with their sexist and degrading slogans”.
The mayor believes their artwork should be deemed as a form of outdoor advertising and subject to the same standards as commercial billboards.
“Aside from being grossly inappropriate and distasteful, the slogans and imagery displayed on many Wicked campervans are an unwanted souvenir for visitors to the Blue Mountains.
He says the slogans do not meet community standards and “are at best, degrading to women, and at worst, condone and normalise sexual sexual harassment and assault”.
When he posted his message on social media it attracted a raft of comments.
Labor councillor Don McGregor will back the move, adding he would also be supporting Byron Bay council when they take this matter up nationally at the Australian Local Government Assembly next month.
One resident Fiona Lenord said she was “so happy to see so much momentum growing in New Zealand, and now in Australia to ban these vans. They are so misogynistic, but also offensive to both genders”.
Another, Nathalie Cooke, said she often felt “sorry for the poor travelers (many who don't speak English as a first language) who book these awful things online perhaps not understanding how offensive the slogans are.
But one constituent, Maggie Streater said: “I think there are more things to worry about than kids in ‘Wicked’ camper vans”.
Council runs two parks at Prince Edward Street in Blackheath and Katoomba Falls Road in Katoomba.
Some campgrounds in New Zealand have banned the budget vans, and one is imposing $300 fines for the offensive slogans. A large number of complaints have been filed with the Advertising Standards Bureau.
In 2014, a Wicked slogan was removed after a protest saw 127,000 people sign a petition to have 'inside every princess is little slut who wants to try it just once' erased from the van's fleet.
Sydney mother Paula Orbea began the petition after her 11-year-old daughter saw the slogan while travelling through the Blue Mountains. After media pressure Wicked issued an apology and committed to removing the offensive slogans, which has not occurred.
Wicked Campers has since said they will contact police if individuals or groups manipulate the artwork on the vans. The company has been approached for comment.
