Comments on religious bus ads surprise
Religious advertising on the back of the region's new eBuses has left some residents feeling "uncomfortable", according to Nelson’s deputy mayor.
The advertising, depicting a Divine Mercy image of Jesus, had led a few people to contact him as well as to other councillors, Rohan O'Neill-Stevens said.
“Having religious advertising on buses is not something that everyone is comfortable with,” he said.
O'Neill-Stevens confirmed that he had been in touch with staff to look into the advertising, though he didn’t believe it breached any of the council’s advertising policy guidelines.
“It’s not something I am personally too fond of, but at the same time, it’s one that is a policy decision we have to weigh up against other obligations under the Bill of Rights Act.
“It's a space where I think we just need to make sure we've got our policy as strong as it can be, because we want our buses to be reflective of a wide range of people who use them and we want all of our users to be comfortable with our our bus system.”
Nelson mayor Nick Smith, in response to questions from Stuff, said he was “surprised” that having Jesus and a religious trust advertising on an eBus had caused controversy.
The council did not own the eBuses, but it subsidised the service through rates and funding from Government, Smith said.
Advertising on the back of the buses helped to offset the cost and Smith said he could “see no good reason” to prohibit religious organisations from buying advertising space on the eBuses.
“It would send the wrong signal when I want Nelson to be a tolerant and diverse community where differing religious beliefs are welcomed and respected.”
Councillor Matty Anderson said he had had a couple of messages with photos of the bus advertising from members of the community who were concerned. Their worries were along the line of: “if they put that up, what else can they put up?”
“I do think some of the councillors are just maybe a little concerned that if you allow this, you kind of have to allow organisations which might be quite yucky, or other elements of beliefs that are kind of gross.
“Where's the line as far as what you can plonk on the back of the bus?”
Group infrastructure manager Alec Louverdis said the advertising on the back of the eBus fleet was handled by an external agency, Go Media.
Potentially contentious adverts are considered by an advertising panel comprised of the Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council communication managers and the eBus public transport co-ordinator.
Louverdis said this specific advert came to their attention in September 2023.
At the time, the decision was made that “nothing in the ad conflicted with council’s policy for bus advertising”. “It’s not a political ad and does not fall into any of the other categories that have not been deemed inappropriate in the guidelines.”
Council’s advertising policy did refer to advertising that could be perceived as harmful to our community's wellbeing but an expression of religion was “not inherently harmful”.
“We fully understand that some people in the community may have negative experiences with religion and might find this advert confronting. However, if we were to ban an advert like this where would we draw the line? The consequence might be that we would have to ban any advert with a topic that may be offensive.”
Regional transport committee chairperson Stu Bryant said the advertising did not breach the shared councils’ policy, nor Advertising Standards Authority guidelines “What is does do, is call for some tolerance as it is not inciting any action or negative opinion of other groups.”
The councils did not supply information as to how many buses bore the advertising, for how long it would be on the buses.