'Dangerous': Greens want to ban sport team, venue fossil-fuels ads

In what would be an Australian first, Greens member Jo Clay wants any teams with fossil-fuel branding to cover up logos and prohibit advertising at Canberra Stadium, Manuka Oval, the AIS, the Canberra Tennis Centre and Narrabundah Ballpark.

It will send shockwaves through the sports marketing community, with individual teams and sporting codes desperate to strike lucrative deals with the highest bidders.

None of Canberra's elite teams have fossil-fuel partnerships and there are only a handful of teams in the domestic and international arena who fit the category.

The Australian team was previously sponsored by Alinta Energy and the Wallabies have Santos logos on their jerseys. Any move to ban that branding at Canberra venues would likely have a major impact on whether those teams play matches in the capital.

The ACT government is already in charge of advertising at Canberra Stadium and Manuka Oval.

It's understood Clay's hopes of enforcing a ban would be met with stiff resistance from the Labor party, making it unlikely she will be able to secure agreement.

"Cancelling [sport] because of the climate-related extreme weather is now common," Clay wrote in an op-ed for The Canberra Times.

"And yet many of these sports and events are sponsored by the same companies that are making climate change worse.

"We can't keep letting fossil fuel companies get away with it. It's time to call time on the greenwash.

"Fossil fuel sports sponsorship isn't just ironic. It's dangerous.

"Australia reveres our sports stars. We want to be them. We tell our kids to be like them. What message are we sending when we cover their sportsgrounds and their bodies with climate-wrecking corporate logos?"

Clay used Santos, BHP and Woodside - coal and mining companies - as examples of the fossil fuel companies that would be banned from advertising for teams or venues in Canberra.

While no Canberra-based professional sporting teams that compete at the aforementioned venues have fossil fuel companies as sponsors, the proposed ban would potentially influence visiting teams and athletes that do have those advertisers on their kit or any signage.

For example, several Olympic sports that train at the AIS are backed by fossil fuel companies, as are multiple NRL, NRLW, AFL and AFLW teams.

"Imagine the AFLW and AFL players running out with the BHP and Woodside logos blacked out on their jerseys," Clay said.

"This is not new ground. We've made regulations like this before. Our venues and sports teams don't run cigarette ads.

"Let's recognise this latest danger.

"Just like the tobacco lobby, fossil fuel corporations are buying social licence for lethal products. But we don't have to let them do this."

Clay caused uproar in the Canberra racing community last year when she tried to block a $40 million deal for the industry. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and the government rejected her proposal to end public funding for horse racing.

Now Clay hopes to introduce a fossil-fuels advertising bill next year, and is currently consulting with organisations such as the Climate Council and FrontRunners, and local sports groups and the community on the proposal.

Climate change activism in sport has become more commonplace in recent years. Cricket captain Pat Cummins was outspoken about Alinta Energy's $40 million sponsorship of the Australian team - a partnership that ended this year.

Last year the Fremantle Dockers also drew protests from devoted fans over the club's sponsorship from oil and gas company, Woodside.

Similarly, the South Australian Greens questioned the Santos sponsorship of the Tour Down Under and the Port Adelaide Power, and independent Senator David Pocock has been a vocal critic of Santos's Wallabies sponsorship too.