The Australian Council of Trade Unions has hit out at the Canberra airport, after it refused to display its latest advertising campaign, claiming it was too political.
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The ACTU this week launched a massive advertising campaign, across television, print, online, radio and billboards, criticising big business and insecure working arrangements. The "change the rules" campaign had been approved by QMS Media, the advertising company that manages the billboards inside Canberra airport, but it was rejected by the airport itself. The ACTU has told Fairfax Media the campaign had originally been accepted, but was rejected once the proposed advertisement was seen.
QMS Media said the decision was due to Canberra airport's strict policies regarding political messaging, but the ACTU has pointed out that much of the advertising shown inside the airport was from companies vying for defence contracts. Manufacturers such as Raytheon, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin are among the many companies that frequently advertise in the airport.
ACTU chief of staff Ben Davison said the union was "disappointed" by the decision and described it as "a bit outrageous" when compared to advertising that was approved by the airport.
"Every time you're there you see ads for defence force contractors asking for taxpayers' money, you see all sorts of ads for luxury goods and luxury items, luxury services," he said.
"So it kind of struck me as weird that an ad that didn't mention any political parties, didn't mention any political candidates and was asking people to join a movement to improve their own wages and conditions and highlighting the gap between ordinary people's wages and conditions and the wages of CEOs was a political ad rather than an ad about social activism and social justice."
Mr Davison conceded Canberra airport had been chosen as a location for the advertising campaign due to the influential passengers that pass through it regularly.
"I think it's fair to say that we recognise, as do defence contractors, that there's a lot of people who make a lot of decisions that influence people's lives who go through Canberra airport and thats why we wanted to advertise there," he said.
In 2015 the airport was lit up in rainbow colours and large letters with Australian Marriage Equality's campaign slogan were installed in a bid to encourage MPs arriving in the capital to vote in favour of a marriage equality bill before Parliament at the time.
Canberra Airport was contacted for comment.
