Six new community representatives have been appointed to the Ad Standards Community Panel, Australia’s independent advertising complaints adjudicator.
The new members represent a broad range of community values, geographic locations and demographic groups and include a food and nutrition expert, university student, Aboriginal community leader and advocate, CEO of a non-profit organisation, police officer, and a gender expert and author.
All members of the Community Panel are directly involved with their communities and are appointed for a set term following a rigorous public recruitment process.
New appointments are staggered to ensure the Community Panel retains corporate memory while introducing people with a mix of experience, views, and skills.
Richard Bean, Ad Standards’ Executive Director, said the appointments will strengthen the delivery of a world-leading self-regulation complaints handling system for advertising in Australia.
“It was a tough selection process because the goal is to bring together a group of people which, as a whole, reflects the wide diversity of Australians and is representative of the Australian community and community opinion.
The diversity of background and opinion within the Community Panel is essential to ensuring the advertising complaints process administered by Ad Standards reflects community standards,” he said.
The Community Panel is an independent body of community representatives responsible for considering complaints made by members of the public about the content of advertisements under the advertising Codes and Initiatives and in line with prevailing community standards in Australia.
The Panel provides consumers with assurance that advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful and also provides advertisers with a valuable guide about community standards.
Retiring Panel members are Fiona Giles, Karen Haynes, Peter Phillips, Julian Ridgers, Carly Wallace, Craig White, and Peter Williams OAM.
“These members have dedicated themselves to serving the Australian community and we are truly grateful for the outstanding contribution each Panel member has made,” said Richard Bean.
A full list of current Community Panel members and their biographies can be found on the Ad Standards website.