THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE SAUSAGE SIZZLE

MORELAND ADOPTS NEW SPONSORSHIP POLICY

Moreland Council has voted in favour of a formal policy enabling private sponsors to fund events and festivals.

Moreland Council has already been accepting private sponsorship for some events, however the February 2021 Council Meeting was an opportunity for the Council to either entrench the practice into formal policy, or take a stand against it.

Labour councillor Lambros Tapinos argued that this would be an opportunity for local businesses to fund local events; however nowhere in the policy is sponsorship limited to small or local business. Whilst the policy disallows sponsorship from industries such as coal, gambling and tobacco, it still allows sponsorship from developers and multinational corporations. This calls into question Lambros’ implication that the policy would benefit local businesses. The policy does state that sponsorship candidates should ideally be based within the municipality, however this is not required. In fact, in the same paragraph of the policy it states that sponsorship candidates can be companies seeking to conduct business in Moreland.

Another issue is that the policy incentivises bigger businesses, not small local businesses, to sponsor events. If a company offers over $10,000 of investment, then the sponsor can have their logo on all materials related to the event, have a significant presence in the marketing for the event/s and is allowed a major presence at the event in premium positions. If companies contribute less than $5,000, they are allowed a limited presence in the marketing and are not given an opportunity for a physical presence at the event. For many smaller, local businesses, a contribution to a local event of over $5,000 is untenable.

We should be thinking about corporate sponsorship of local government events for what it is; political donations. Allowing this formal policy to be developed gives the bigger private companies an opportunity to gain access to the Council and to weigh in on decision-making.

As Greens councillor James Conlan argued: “seeking money from big business for sponsorship is not the way forward…we might get the Bunnings street food party perhaps with free sausages, but I don’t know if that’s a path we should be pursuing”.

By SAS & BB