Australia Day flag reflection

Posted by Michael on January 25, 2010, 12:54pm, 170 views

Eureka flag
It must amuse the rest of the world that Australians continue to argue about our system of government and national symbols.

On the eve of Australia Day a celebrity push has begun to change the national flag.

Ray Martin says we should have a new flag. Ron Barassi agrees with him. Well, we’d better get cracking then and change the bugger.

Hardly.

I support the constitutional monarchy, but funnily enough I don’t feel strongly about the flag.

Republicanism seeks to change the way we are governed, devalues our heritage and undermines our values. A flag is just a symbol.

I would vote today to retain the existing flag, but if the Eureka flag had been adopted years ago I’d happily wave it.

I can’t say the same about Ausflag’s 1997 competition winner (below).

And I wouldn’t embrace the Aboriginal flag.

That’s part of the dilemma for proponents of change. More people support the existing flag than they do the constitutional monarchy.

A new poll shows 44 percent of Australians are in favour of becoming a republic, with 27 percent against.

But only 27 percent of people want to remove the Union Jack from the flag, according to the Galaxy poll, conducted for News Limited.

It found 45 percent want the flag to remain the same.

A plebiscite is required to change the flag. Assuming three or four designs are put up against the current flag, it will be nearly impossible for one of them to win the vote, even if a preferential system is adopted.

People will be divided between the alternatives and likely vote to retain the status quo, rather than endorse a change they don’t want.

Supporters of the current flag often trot out the military argument; that Australians fought and died under the flag.

That’s a furphy.

The Union Flag was still commonly used in Australia during the First World War. It’s unlikely that Diggers in subsequent conflicts really considered the flag, or the King for that matter.

This site cleverly notes: “In 1967 if you had asked an Australian digger in Vietnam what the Australian flag should be he probably would have said it should depict a can of VB with two Melbourne Cup winners rampant.”

Canada changed its flag in 1965 and the sky didn’t cave in. Interestingly, there is less debate in Canada than Australia regarding a republic.

As for what the world thinks, foreigners must marvel that we quibble over such things. For such a peaceful and prosperous nation it’s a strange debate to have.

I never found people overseas to be confused about our flag. It’s probably different for New Zealanders.

To conclude, while I’m open minded about changing the Australian flag, I’m not a champion of the cause and can’t see it happening.



The Ausflag competition winner.

Australian flag

The Australian Flag.

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Comments

One Response to “Australia Day flag reflection”

  1. Michael on January 25th, 2010 6:27pm

    It’s interesting that Labor figures are lining up to support the flag, Deputy PM Julia Gillard leading the way: http://www.skynews.com.au/politics/article.aspx?id=421149

    Just being pragmatic, I suspect.

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