Councillors at the Melbourne council unanimously vote to implement advertising restrictions
Councillors at Melbourne’s Yarra Council have unanimously voted to implement a Fossil Ad Ban.
The vote has been welcomed by Footy for Climate and Doctors for the Environment.
Councillors approved a staff report which recommended:
- That Council:
(a) not permit advertising on Council property which specifically promotes fossil fuels, or by companies which extract, produce and/or refine fossil fuels;
(b) notes the definitions of ‘fossil fuels’ and ‘Council property’ as provided in the Council report which provide the scope of this resolution; and
(c) notes that that agreements with third parties relating to this initiative would not come into place until such time as agreements and leases are renewed or negotiated.
The ban includes AFL ground Victoria Park and will affect future contracts with AFL teams.
Footy for Climate Director and former AFL player, Jasper Pittard said,
“We’d like to see sponsorships that keep the future of our planet and our game as a priority. We understand the difficulty professional athletes can experience when talking about the sponsors of their teams and their sports, and the conflicts that these sponsorships can have with the values of some of the players. Like tobacco in the years gone by, we don’t want to encourage social license to companies that put the health of our players, fans and planet at risk.”
Yarra was the first Australian council to vote to ban fossil fuel ads and sponsorships in 2022.
