Election remnants still strewn around a fortnight later

Australia Votes

Shaun Hollis

Journalist

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This election poster was still lying near Port Douglas Road on Tuesday. Picture: Shaun Hollis
This pile of election posters remained near the community centre for a fortnight after the election. Picture: Supplied

An election poster of LNP candidate Jeremy Neal lies face up near the second roundabout leading into Port Douglas like some bizarre metaphor for his failed campaign.

The discarded corflute is one of several that have been littering Douglas Shire more than two weeks after the Federal Election finished.

Another independent candidate poster was floating around on the side of the Captain Cook Highway near the Mossman Cemetery for about a fortnight and, incredibly, a large pile of  corflutes on wooden sticks was stacked near the Port Douglas Community Centre for a fortnight until they were cleaned up earlier this week.

The centre was one of the few voting booths in the region, but the candidates and their staff seemingly simply forgot about their civic duty to dispose of their litter once voting was completed.

A Newsport reader took a photo of the poster pile late last week.

“Why should election candidates be allowed to get away with this mess outside the Port Douglas library?,” he said.

“How about Newsport highlights the litterers in town.”

There are no national laws about when election corflutes must be removed, but some councils across the country have rules to specifically make candidates take them down.

The Australian Electoral Commission recommends checking the rules for each local region - Douglas Shire Council does not have a specific corflute policy listed on its website.

So, the onus is on candidates and their supporters to clean up after themselves after an election.

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