Adelaide Airport grounds park lands ‘welcome billboard’
Park lands protesters made personal appearances at Adelaide Airport this morning to ‘welcome’ the top brass in the Labor Party for their annual conference, after another lobbying strategy was thwarted.
About eight park lands protesters fronted the media outside Adelaide Airport this morning after being told a Stop the Chop billboard they hoped to have in clear view of Labor delegates arriving from across the country could not go ahead.
Adelaide Airport rejected a Park Lands protesters bid to use its Sir Richard Williams Avenue billboard this week to intensify their action against trees being removed for a redeveloped golf course and MotoGP track as thousands of Labor members fly into SA for the national party conference.
“The airport does not allow advertising on billboards or digital signage on its land that is political in nature,” an airport spokesperson said.
Adelaide Park Lands Association President Mat Monti claimed the billboard was grounded just days before take-off.
Monti said he heard from the advertising agency the group hired to fill three billboards at prime Adelaide spots that the prime airport real estate would not go ahead late on Friday.
The group has spent about $3500 on the billboard slots to run amid the Labor party’s national conference running in Adelaide from Thursday to Saturday this week. Monti said the funds were donated by members or supporters of the Park Lands Association.
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“The artwork won’t be anything controversial, like some previous posts from other individuals, there won’t be anything using AI … it’ll be just a pretty simple message about the park lands,” Monti said.
Three billboards with messaging to “stop the chop” are now installed at West Terrace, Main North Road and the Southern Expressway Overpass on Marion Road, all have been active since Tuesday.
Despite being unable to land the airport billboard, about a dozen members of the Adelaide Park Lands Association rallied at the airport this morning to welcome incoming Labor delegates to “the land of the rag-tag extremist”.
Thousands of Labor party faithful, ranging from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, state premiers and union bosses, will be in Adelaide for the conference.
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Adelaide Park Lands Association President Mat Monti said the group’s cause already has won support of former SA Labor stalwarts including former Attorney General Chris Sumner and former SA Premier Lyn Arnold.
“There are a lot of senior Labor figures past and present who have serious concerns over this government’s actions in the park lands,” Monti said.
“But I also think there’s a hell of a lot of rank and file Labor members who are probably going to make their disgust at the action of this government in the park lands pretty clear at this Labor conference.
“We want to make sure no Labor delegate leaves South Australia without knowing something is going on in the park lands.”
The hotbed local issue of park lands protection is not among the numerous topics to be debated at this week’s conference, but there was expected to be heated debate over Israel and Palestine and a potential gas export tax.
A spokesperson for Labor’s Environmental Action Group (LEAN), a cohort of the Labor membership advocating to party members on the environment, told InDaily that the group has seen an uptake in its membership since footage of tree felling made headlines earlier this year.
In its submission to the party’s draft national platform – the 126-page document that outlines the party’s mandate – LEAN focused on environmental restoration and a potential gas export tax.
“Labor will ensure that all policies, including taxation, provide appropriate incentives and remove disincentives for decarbonisation,” LEAN’s submission to the party said.
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