Election corflutes are set to be banned from public infrastructure after the South Australian government backed laws introduced to parliament by the opposition leader almost two years ago.

The changes will prevent posters from being installed on Stobie (power) and light poles but they won’t impact people’s ability to erect them on private property.

The reforms cleared state parliament’s lower house on Wednesday but are still to pass the Legislative Council.

The changes are likely to be in place ahead of the Dunstan by-election, sparked by former premier Steven Marshall’s decision to resign.

David Speirs introduced a bill to ban corflutes after the 2022 state election and said the change is something he has been advocating for “for the best part of five years”.

“Poll after poll, undertaken by media outlets, has made it very clear that South Australians do not like the visual pollution of these posters,” he said.

“They do not like the fact that they are made up of single-use plastics. They are rarely re-used.”

Ban a ‘very good environmental outcome’

The former Liberal government tried and failed to ban corflutes in 2021 as part of a wider shake-up of electoral laws, but Labor did not support the changes.

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis told parliament on Wednesday the government would support Mr Speirs’s bill and the ban was a “very good environmental outcome”.

“It’s clear to the government that there is consensus in the house amongst every other group that this is a measure whose time has come,” he said.

“And as we head towards a by-election this seems timely to take action on this issue.”

The Greens have also campaigned for a corflute ban on environmental and visual pollution grounds.

“We know that residents hate corflutes. We know that they are bad for the environment,” Greens MLC Robert Simms said.

“Other states outlawed them long ago, so we really welcome the fact that the parliament is acting on this.”

The date of the Dunstan by-election will also be confirmed on Thursday afternoon by speaker Dan Cregan.