The Victoria Government is under fire after debuting a controversial new border permit campaign aimed at keeping Victoria safe from COVID-19.
The ads aim to remind NSW and ACT residents that they can’t visit Victoria without a permit – it does this bluntly, by featuring big, bold, red lettering that tells residents they can’t visit without a permit.
According to Pedestrian, the ads are airing on NSW television screens and popping up on ACT resident’s Facebook pages.
However, the ads have been criticised for being more tone-deaf than effective, and seemingly have managed to offend the very people they are targeting.
The border-permit campaign comes in the midst of the Victoria and NSW governments’ arguing over vaccines, and after NSW has announced it will be in lockdown for a further four weeks – due to the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases.
The ABC reported that the opposition Minister for Scrutiny of Government spokesman, James Newbury, said: “Our friends in Sydney are doing it really tough. The last thing they need is a mean and nasty television advert from Daniel Andrews beamed into their homes.
“It’s not the Victorian way to kick people when they are down, and Daniel Andrews should pull his mean and nasty adverts immediately and apologise.”
Newbury is not the only critic, people have taken to Twitter to criticise the severity of the messaging with some Twitter users comparing the ads to anti-refugee posters.
https://twitter.com/jason_a_w/status/1420530111216902167
A mutual mocked this up pic.twitter.com/xFrxNztbQ1
— Tom Studans (@maximumwelfare) July 28, 2021
I'm all for Victoria closing its borders if that's what they think is best. But do you really need to troll Sydneysiders during Olympic breaks with these border ads? I can't even go to Newtown without breaking the law, you think I'm going to make it to Wodonga?
— Gareth Brown (@forager_gareth) July 28, 2021
https://twitter.com/iancwhitney/status/1420328393317371904
https://twitter.com/wombatTrx/status/1419948579330813953
Arguably, this campaign won’t be mending any bridges between Victoria and NSW.
