TOP: A sample of Brisbane City Council's official branding "cleat" that council rules strictly say must not be used for political purposes. ABOVE: Team Quirk footpath signs in 2012.
NEWS
Central Ward councillor Vicki Howard – the woman who
worked so very, very hard at the 2012 poll to look like she had already been elected – has
hidden behind a short, stock-standard LNP response to our latest questions over
the use by her and other Team Quirk candidates of the copycat council cleat.
“Team Quirk branding does not use the Brisbane City
Council cleat or logo” was the belated response to our questions.
The Independent will let the voters of Central Ward make up their own
minds about her ongoing refusal to answer what this paper believes the
vast majority of its readers would accept as legitimate, fair and reasonable questions
that deserve to be answered in an open and honest way.
Our questions from a few weeks ago:
Preamble: As in the 2012 Brisbane City Council elections, you are once again
putting your name and photo to a lot of LNP/Team Quirk material that uses a
pattern of alternating blue and yellow blocks down the left hand side of
political material of all sorts. Accordingly we pose the following questions, including some you’ll be
very familiar with as you have steadfastly refused to answer them for some
years. And please advise that you've received this email, regardless of whether
you intend to reply or not.
1. Do you share The
Independent’s view that Brisbane residents should always obey both the spirit
and the letter of Brisbane City Council rules and bylaws?
2. Do you believe that in
putting your name and image to the design feature mentioned above, you are
obeying both the spirit and the letter of that council rule that bans the use
of the City Council’s intellectual property – its branding “cleat” of
alternating blue and yellow blocks run vertically down the left-hand side of
official council material - in political material?
3. The council’s CEO told The
Independent last year after viewing LNP/Team Quirk political material that the
blue and yellow colours used on such material were the same as those used on
the council’s official cleat. Do you agree with his assessment?
4. Do you also accept that
the dimensions of the blue and yellow blocks used on official city council
material vary widely as seen by the public?
5. Do you accept that if just
one voter in Brisbane thinks that what appears on your political material is
the council cleat, then that’s one too many?
6. The Independent has long
argued that you and the LNP/ Team Quirk in general have deliberately used such
a design feature to make some voters – The Independent argues it would be the
vast majority - think it’s the council cleat. If you disagree with that then
why are you using it?
7. The Independent has also
long argued that the use of the copycat council cleat in LNP/Team Quirk
political material including your own is there for no other reason than to link
Team Quirk with the council’s name so that Team Quirk becomes the council’s
official election team, thus giving it an electoral advantage, one we argue is
unfair, unethical and politically dishonest. Assuming you disagree with that
view, please explain why we are wrong.
Below: It's the 2016 campaign and when you've cheated once and it's worked, why not cheat again?
