Australian flag debate - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Australian flag debate is a debate over whether the Australian flag

Flag of Australia

The flag of Australia is a defaced Blue Ensign: a blue field with the Union Flag in the canton , and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter...

should be changed in order to remove the Union Flag

Union Flag

The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...

from the canton

Flag terminology

Flag terminology is a jargon used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display.-Description of standard flag parts and terms:...

, often in connection with the issue of republicanism in Australia. This debate has come to a head at a number of occasions, such as the period immediately preceding the Australian Bicentenary

Australian Bicentenary

The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1970 on the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook landing and claiming the land, and again in 1988 to celebrate 200 years of permanent European settlement.-1970:...

in 1988, and also during the Prime Ministership of Paul Keating

Paul Keating

Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...

, who had publicly supported a change in the flag.

Arguments in favour of changing the flag

The case for changing the flag has been led by the organisation known as Ausflag

Ausflag

Ausflag is a not for profit organisation that was established to promote the debate on the flag of Australia.Ausflag was formed in 1981 by Harold Scruby who has since worked to foster debate on the design of the flag...

. The organisation has not consistently supported one design, and is opposed to the Eureka Flag

Eureka Flag

The Eureka Flag is a design; a dark blue field with a central white symmetric cross consisting five eight-pointed stars, representing the Crux constellation....

, but has sponsored a number of design competitions to develop alternative flag candidates.

Supporters of changing the flag typically make the following arguments:

The flag is not distinctive because it contains the national flag of another country in a position of prominence. In particular, the flag is difficult to distinguish from a variety of flags based on the British Blue Ensign
Blue Ensign
The Blue Ensign is a flag, one of several British ensigns, used by certain organisations or territories associated with the United Kingdom. It is used either plain, or defaced with a badge or other emblem....

, most notably the national flag
Flag of New Zealand
The flag of New Zealand is a defaced Blue Ensign with the Union Flag in the canton, and four red stars with white borders to the right. The stars represent the constellation of Crux, the Southern Cross....

of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

and the state flag of Victoria
Flag of Victoria
The flag of Victoria, symbolising the state of Victoria in Australia, is a British Blue Ensign defaced by the state badge of Victoria in the fly. The badge is the Southern Cross topped by an imperial crown, which is currently the St Edward's Crown...

. For example, the Australian Monarchist League
Australian Monarchist League
The Australian Monarchist League is a non-profit organisation, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, promoting the monarchy of Australia, and providing information to members of the public about Australian history and the Australian Constitution...

, during their "no" campaign for the Australian republic referendum in 1999
Australian republic referendum, 1999
The Australian republic referendum held on 6 November 1999 was a two-question referendum to amend the Constitution of Australia. The first question asked whether Australia should become a republic with a President appointed by Parliament following a bi-partisan appointment model which had...

, mistakenly displayed the New Zealand flag instead of the Australian flag on one of their pamphlets.
It does not accurately connote Australia's status as an independent nation. The Union flag at the canton suggests Australia is a British colony or dependency. New Zealand, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

and Tuvalu
Tuvalu
Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...

are the only other independent nations in the world to feature the Union Flag on their national flags. Other Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

countries whose flags originally depicted the Union Flag, such as Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, have since changed them, without becoming republics. The flag's colours of red, white and blue are neither Australia's official national colours
National colours
National colours are frequently part of a country's set of national symbols.Many states and nations have formally adopted a set of colours as their official "national colours" while others have de facto national colours that have become well-known through popular use...

(green and gold) nor its traditional heraldic colours
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...

(blue and gold).
In representing only Australia's British heritage, the flag is anachronistic
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...

, and does not reflect the change to a multicultural, pluralist society. In particular, the flag makes no mention of indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

, many of whom regard the Union Flag as a symbol of colonial oppression and dispossession.
The existing flag is historically not the prime national symbol. For most of the time since Federation
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...

, it was flown alongside the British Union Flag which took precedence as the National Flag from 1924 until 1954. Until the late 1920s the Federation Flag remained more popular than the Australian flag for public and even some official events. For example, the Federation Flag was flown during the 1927 visit to Australia of the Duke and Duchess of York, the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The number of points of the stars have varied since 1901, and the present blue version was not adopted as the national flag until 1954. Before then, the Union flag took precedence and confusion reigned between whether the red or blue version of the Australian flag was to be preferred, with the red often winning out.
It is spurious to claim that Australians have "fought and died under the flag", given that during most of the wars Australians have been involved in, they have usually "fought under" various British flags or the Australian Red Ensign
Australian Red Ensign
The Australian Red Ensign resulted from the 1901 Commonwealth Government Federal Flag Design Competition which required two entries: a flag for official use and one for the mercantile marine...

. Prior to 1941 only 10 per cent of military ensigns were Blue and in 1945 Red ensigns were flown along the route of the official end of war parades. The flag made in secret by the Changi
Changi Prison
Changi Prison is a prison located in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore.-First prison and POW camp:...

prisoners-of-war was a red ensign. The coffins of Australia's war dead were draped with the Union Flag.
Although the flag was designed by four Australians, including two teenagers, and a man from New Zealand and chosen in a public competition, the original competition rules stipulated the design must include the Union flag and Southern Cross and it still had to be approved by King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

and, because both the red and blue versions were considered naval ensigns, the British Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

.
There are 54 countries in the Commonwealth of Nations — only five of them, including the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, have the Union Flag in their own flag.

Replacing the Union flag with the Aboriginal flag

Another suggested design was to replace the Union Flag

Union Flag

, in the canton (upper hoist quarter), with the Aboriginal flag

Australian Aboriginal Flag

The Australian Aboriginal Flag is a flag that represents Indigenous Australians. It is one of the official "Flags of Australia", and holds special legal and political status, but it is not the "Australian National Flag"...

. Although this was put forward as a simple evolutionary design to imply the removal of British ties and inclusion of Aboriginal ties, it has not met with widespread support and it is extremely unlikely that it will be considered as a new Australian flag design.

Reasons for this include the following:

In flag design, a symbol in the canton of a flag implies subordination to the group represented by the symbol.
Harold Thomas
Harold Thomas
Harold Joseph Thomas is an Indigenous Australian descended from the Luritja people of Central Australia. An artist and land rights activist, he is best known for designing and copyrighting the Australian Aboriginal Flag....

, the designer and copyright holder of the Aboriginal flag, objects to this use, saying, "Our flag is not a secondary thing. It stands on its own, not to be placed as an adjunct to any other thing. It shouldn't be treated that way."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are considered equally indigenous to Australia, with each represented by their own flag; the inclusion of the Aboriginal flag but omission of the Torres Strait Islander Flag
Torres Strait Islander Flag
The Torres Strait Islander Flag is an official Flag of Australia, and is the flag that represents Torres Strait Islander people. It was designed in 1992 by Bernard Namok...

may be seen as exclusive and unfair.
The use of black alongside the flag's dark blue is regarded as poor flag design by vexillologists.

Despite this, the flag has shown up in the science fiction movie Event Horizon
Event Horizon (film)
Event Horizon is a 1997 science fantasy horror film. The screenplay was written by Philip Eisner and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. The film stars Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill...

. In the film, Sam Neill

Sam Neill

Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....

represents an Australian crew member, and can be seen wearing the flag on the sleeve of his suit.

Replacing the Union flag with the Commonwealth Star

One suggested design is to remove the Union flag and moving the Commonwealth star that represents the States and Territories from the bottom left of the flag up into the canton.

Arguments in favour of keeping the flag

In response to the increasing publicity surrounding proposed new flag designs, supporters of the existing Australian flag formed the Australian National Flag Association

Australian National Flag Association

The Australian National Flag Association was launched at a public meeting in Sydney on 5 October 1983 to oppose suggestions that the existing Australian National Flag is not appropriately representative of the nation, and should be changed, with the late Sir Colin Hines elected as founding President...

to resist attempts to change the flag.

Supporters of the flag make the following arguments:

Although flag design protocol implies that Australia is subordinate to Britain, this view of the flag's meaning is not held by many Australians.
It is a popular symbol. No alternative national flag has attained the same degree of acceptance accorded to the existing flag.
According to Nigel Morris of the Australian Flag Society
Australian Flag Society
The Australian Flag Society is an advocacy group that supports retaining the existing flag of Australia.-Structure:The AFS is currently unincorporated; it was originally constituted as the Australian Capital Territory branch of the Australian National Flag Association...

, it is of historical importance, being the flag "that Australia has grown up under, and the flag that has been associated with all of her many achievements on the international scene". at 8 July In terms of its essential elements it has remained unchanged since it was first flown in 1901 and is based on earlier flags, such as that of the Anti-Transportation League; it is also similar to the Blue Ensign designs of all the states' flags.
The existing flag is important for emotional reasons and because of tradition. Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

warships have used the Australian blue ensign as a battle flag since 1913 and has used the Australian white ensign in place of the British ensign since 1967. Other branches of the Australian Defence Force
Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy , Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force and a number of 'tri-service' units...

have used the blue ensign as the saluting flag at all reviews and ceremonial parades since 1911.
It was chosen through an open public competition and designed by four Australians and a man from New Zealand.

Southern Cross

Most supporters of a new flag want to keep the Southern Cross in any future design. Almost all suggested replacement flags submitted to Ausflag feature the constellation, with the four main stars as seven-point Commonwealth Star

Commonwealth Star

The Commonwealth Star is a seven-pointed star symbolising the Federation of Australia which came into force on 1 January 1901....

s, and the centre star as a standard five-point star, as they appear on the existing flag.

The Southern Cross is thought locally to represent Australia's position in the Southern Hemisphere (see Southern Cross Flag

Southern Cross Flag

Southern Cross Flags are flags which depict the Southern Cross. "Southern Cross" is the English name of Crux, a constellation visible in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also depicted in coats of arms of various countries and sub-national entities...

). It has been used as a symbol of Australia since the early days of British settlement. The Southern Cross was also known to ancient Aborigines and features in a number of their traditional legends.

Some, however, have concerns that the Southern Cross is not explicitly Australian but could represent any nation at all in the southern hemisphere. As well as the Australian flag, it also already appears on the flags of Brazil

Flag of Brazil

The national flag of Brazil is a blue disc depicting a starry sky spanned by a curved band inscribed with the national motto, within a yellow rhombus, on a green field. Brazil officially adopted this design for its national flag on November 19, 1889, replacing the flag of the second Empire of Brazil...

, Papua New Guinea

Flag of Papua New Guinea

The flag of Papua New Guinea was adopted on July 1, 1971. In the hoist, it depicts the Southern Cross; in the fly, a raggiana bird of paradise is silhouetted. The designer of the flag was 15 year old schoolgirl Susan Huhume who won a nationwide competition for a new flag design in 1971.Red and...

, Samoa

Flag of Samoa

The flag of Samoa was adopted on February 24, 1949. It consists of a red field with a blue rectangle in the canton. The blue rectangle bears the Southern Cross Constellation: four large white stars and one smaller star.-Historical flags:...

and New Zealand.

Progress of the debate

When the winning entry to the 1901 Federal Flag Design Competition was announced the initial reception was mixed. Many were critical from an aesthetic perspective, with much criticism being made of the extremely large Commonwealth Star (later to be made smaller by the 1909 amendment). As the design was basically the Victorian flag with a star added, many critics in both the Federal Government and the New South Wales government objected to the chosen flag for being "too Victorian". There were some who felt that the winning design of the earlier Herald competition was far superior to the design chosen. The then republican magazine The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...

labelled it:

a staled réchauffé of the British flag, with no artistic virtue, no national significance... Minds move slowly: and Australia is still Britain's little boy. What more natural than that he should accept his father's cut-down garments, – lacking the power to protest, and only dimly realising his will. That bastard flag is a true symbol of the bastard state of Australian opinion.

EWLINE


Melbourne Herald competition winning design	Blue version of winning design	As approved by King Edward VII

Chris Watson, who served as the 3rd Prime Minister of Australia, suggested substituting a different design, one that "had the Union Jack in the center resting on six vertical red stripes on a white ground."

In 1904, due to lobbying by Senator Richard Crouch, the House of Representatives proclaimed that the blue ensign "should be flown upon all forts, vessels, saluting places and public buildings of the Commonwealth upon all occasions when flags are used", giving it the same status as the Union Jack in the UK. Initially the Department of Defence resisted, considering it to be a marine ensign and favouring King's Regulations that specified the use of the Union Jack. After being approached by the Department of Defence, Prime Minister Chris Watson stated in parliament that he was not satisfied with the design of the Australian flag and that implementation of the 1904 resolution could wait until consideration was given to "adopt another [flag] which in our opinion is more appropriate."

On 14 April 1954 the Flags Act 1953 (Cth) became law after receiving all party support. Tabling the legislation in parliament Prime Minister Robert Menzies stated: "The bill is very largely a formal measure which puts into legislative form what has become almost the established practice in Australia."

The first proposal for a new Australian flag was made in 1956 by the Republican Socialist League and was an evolutionary design where the Union Jack was replaced with the Commonwealth Star.

The Bulletin launched an Australian National Flag Quest on 1 August 1971 in time for the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to open the Sydney Opera House in October 1973; 10 designs were chosen from the 2,000 submitted and these were displayed by major stores in the capital cities and main provincial centres during 1972.

At the July 1982 Australian Labor Party national conference in Canberra, the party changed its policy platform in regard to national symbols to: "Initiate and Support moves to establish with popular acceptance an Australian flag ... which will more distinctively reflect our national independence and identity."

It was reported in The Australian on 28 January 1984 that, "It is understood that Federal Cabinet will soon decide how best to ignite the debate on the pros and cons of changing the flag before the issue is put to a national vote before the 1988 bicentenary year. The Minister for Housing and Construction Mr Chris Hurford publicly revealed yesterday that the Government had not allowed economic discussions to completely swamp cabinet debate on the flag."

Prime Minister Bob Hawke subsequently announced in the House of Representatives that the design of the Australian flag would not be reviewed by the Australian government before or during the bicentenary year.

Paul Keating publicly championed the cause of a new flag during his term as prime minister, including on a state visit to Indonesia. He was quoted as saying:

I do not believe that the symbols and the expression of the full sovereignty of Australian nationhood can ever be complete while we have a flag with the flag of another country on the corner of it.

On 6 June 1994, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Deputy Prime Minister Kim Beazley as saying the ALP Government was committed to its timetable for changes to Australia's flag by the Centenary of Federation in 2001; beyond commissioning a national survey that year, no further action was taken.

In opposition from 1983 - 1996, coalition MPs unsuccessfully sponsored 10 private members bills to amend the Flags Act 1953 (Cth) to prevent the existing Australian flag from being replaced by the agreement of both houses of federal parliament alone, without the views of the Australian people being taken into account.

Frequent Morgan

Roy Morgan Research

Roy Morgan Research is an Australian market research company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria; it was founded in 1941 by Roy Morgan ; its Executive Chairman today is his son, Gary Morgan....

polls showed the percentage of Australians wanting a new flag increasing from 27% in 1979 to 42% in 1992, to a majority of 52% in 1998. In response, the Coalition government under John Howard

John Howard

John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....

discouraged discussion about changing the flag and in 1996 established Australian National Flag Day, in 2002 supplied ANFA’s promotional video free to all primary schools and in 2004 required all schools receiving federal funds to fly the Australian flag.

On 24 March 1998, the Flags Amendment Bill 1996 received Royal Assent. The Act stipulates rules for reviewing the design of the Australian national flag; to replace the flag entirely, the existing flag and one or more choices must be put to the electorate in a plebiscite along the same lines as the National Tune Poll

Australian plebiscite, 1977 (National Song)

As an additional question in the 1977 referendum, the voters were polled on which song they would prefer to be used to mark occasions where a particularly Australian national identity was desired. Voting on this question was not compulsory...

- assuming the Act is not amended or repealed by parliament through the normal processes. There is also a weighty body of legal opinion which says sections 3(2) & (3) are unconstitutional and open to being rendered inoperable by a court.

Malcolm Turnbull, former chairman (1993 - 2000) of the Australian Republican Movement and head of the official Yes case committee for the 1999 Australian republic referendum, left the board of Ausflag in 1994 after being asked for his resignation and in 2004 joined the Australian National Flag Association.

A 2010 Morgan Poll that asked: "Do you think Australia should have a new design for our National Flag?" was supported by 29% of respondents and opposed by 66%, with 5% uncommitted.

External links to alternative designs

Ausflag
Southern Cross and Boomerang:
- Brendan Jones ("Reconciliation Flag")
- FlagOz
- Putland
Green and Gold:
- Seven Golden Stars (The Southern Cross, Commonwealth Star
  Commonwealth Star
  The Commonwealth Star is a seven-pointed star symbolising the Federation of Australia which came into force on 1 January 1901....
  
  and the Sun
  Australian Aboriginal Flag
  The Australian Aboriginal Flag is a flag that represents Indigenous Australians. It is one of the official "Flags of Australia", and holds special legal and political status, but it is not the "Australian National Flag"...
  
  )
- Dream Track ("a circle counterchanged")
- A New Flag for Australia (blue background)
Kangaroo in sinking sun
A set of Australian flag proposals
WebRing - New Australian Flag Designs

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