The new laws – if passed by both houses of parliament – will specifically target Queensland-registered Wicked Campers rental vans, which have been targeted nationally for the offensive slogans often emblazoned across their vehicles.

Infrastructure Minister Rene Hidding, under the proposed legislation, vehicles will be “deregistered if they are found to not meet advertising standards, and where the owner has not rectified the cause”.

Of course, the legislation will specifically target Wicked Campers, making their slogan-covered vehicles unable to be registered in their current condition.

There’s little doubt the scrawls spread across Wicked Camper vehicles are highly offensive, many of them detrimental to women.

It’s not the first time a public entity has attempted to have the campers banned in Tasmania.

In July last year, a motion to ban vehicles rented by company Wicked Campers from council camping grounds on Tasmania’s East Coast was lost at a Break O’Day Council meeting.

At the time, The Examiner reported mayor Mick Tucker as say that while there was no doubt that the vans displayed content that could be interpreted as offensive, there was no way the council could police or enforce the motion put before it.

Break O’Day Council had requested the company remove some of its slogans from its vehicles. Wicked Campers did not respond to the request.

In April 2014, the Advertising Standards Bureau has upheld a Queensland complaint that Wicked Campers were in breach of Section 2.6 of the Advertiser Code of Ethics. It states that advertising or marketing communications should not depict material contrary to prevailing community standards on health and safety.

Specifically, one of its vans featured the disgraceful slogan “Fat chicks are harder to kidnap”.

It seems fitting that, in the week we celebrate International Women’s Day, this legislation is tabled. 

If any company such as Wicked Campers believes that this type of “promotional advertising” is acceptable today, they should be removed from our roads.