Driving around Canberra at the moment, it's difficult to get that song out of your head:
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
But these particular signs aren't telling us to do something (or ... are they?).
No, these lovely purple-hued signs (someone from marketing must have told them lavender was calming) are actually the ACT government telling the average punter what they are doing for us. Four months out from the ACT election.
"Major upgrades coming to this road", "New playground coming soon", "Improving facilities for better recycling outcomes" , "The ACT Government is planting trees here" and, the God-awful, "We are signalising this intersection" are just a small sample of the signs which have sprouted up all over Canberra.
Liberal MLA Mark Parton posted a video on Facebook calling out the signs as the Labor government indulging in nothing more than "pure, unadulterated election advertising ... but you're paying for it". That is, Mr Parton says the ratepayer is covering the costs of getting Labor re-elected with this electioneering by stealth.
"The fact that there has been such a dramatic escalation of government propaganda just months out from the election screams of political electioneering. ACT taxpayers deserve to know how much they are paying for Andrew Barr's electioneering propaganda," he said.
Mr Parton wanted to know where the signs had been for the first three years of the term and why they had suddenly appeared so close to the October 17 poll.
City Services minister Chris Steel got very 'nothing-to-see-here' when asked about the signs.
Were they just electioneering? "No. The Canberra Liberals' childish attempt to make a story out of a standard government practice is," he said.
The government says these kinds of signs telling us about infrastructure projects have been around for a while. We just didn't notice them. So they've made them bigger. And a different colour.
"It is standard practice to provide signage around infrastructure projects - stylistically these signs used to be plain white and have a simple description of the works taking place," Mr Steel said.
"ACT government capital works signage guidelines were introduced in 2016 as a guide for agencies across ACT Government.
"Further improvements to design of these signs followed feedback from the community in 2019 that they did not feel they were well-informed about infrastructure projects that affect them."
So, it's all our fault. We complained. We got the signs. These latest signs started going up in November, 2019, Mr Steel said. "It is interesting that Mark Parton seems to have only just gone out and discovered it,"he said.
While the signs are couched in overwhelmingly positive language, Mr Steel maintains "the signage helps inform the community about upcoming work which might create a short-term inconvenience for them. The signage links back to website information so people can get more details".
And the cost? The signs run from multiple metal signs to corflutes.
"Since November 2019, when the style of signage was updated, approximately $55,000 has been spent by Transport Canberra and City Services on signage. This equates to a fraction of 1 per cent of the infrastructure budget," Mr Steel said.
Deputy ACT electoral commissioner Rohan Spence said the signs did not breach any rules. Under section 294 of the ACT Electoral Act, the signs fell under a publication of the government because they displayed the name of the agency and the City of Canberra Arms and the words Australian Capital Territory, Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, ACT Legislative Assembly, Australian Capital Territory Government or ACT Government.
Nothing to see here.
