‘Canberra Airport Group: We call on you to stop arms industry promotion at Canberra Airport’

GCPC is currently supporting a petition opposing advertisements by arms manufacturers at Canberra Airport. The petition was launched by the new community campaign, No Airport Arms Ads (NAAA), on August 23, 2015.

The petition begins: “If you ever come through Canberra Airport, one of the main gateways to our national capital, you are likely to receive a “welcome” from some of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers. Raytheon, BAE, Lockheed Martin, and ThyssenKrupps have all had big display ads there.”

Apparently Austal is also there, proudly stating that its vessels are “delivering Australia’s border patrol capability”.

Among the reasons given for opposing the ads are:

• They help to normalise warfare and big military spending, and present a sanitised image of what weapons do.
• They are inappropriate for refugees and others from
  war-torn countries, and inconsistent with Canberra’s new status as a Refugee Welcome Zone.

You can access and add your signature to this Avaaz petition here.

More information about NAAA’s campaign can be found here.

Read Joan Beaumont’s article about the controversy here.