Our beloved Australian Flag remains under attack by a small minority of republican flag changers.
Without a mandate, and notwithstanding their landslide defeat in 1999, the republicans are in the process of removing all symbols of the Australian Crown - an institution they see as a constraint on republican politicians.
The republican newspaper The Age says that since everyone knows the Flag will change after some unknown (politicians’) republic is adopted, the Australian Flag should be changed now.
Leading republicans opened a major campaign aginst the flag which culminated in a programme on national television on the eve of ANZAC Day, 2010. In a subsequent official inquiry this campaign was ruled to be misleading.
The principal feature of Australia Day 2011 was the endorsement of flag and constitutional change by those chosen as Australians of the Year by the politicians’ Australia Day committees.
The republican flag changers deliberately ran dead during the 1999 republican referendum campaign to assist the republican case, although the republican movement had earlier endorsed an exhibition of new flags to coincide with the 1998 Constitutional Convention as well as a touring exhibition . Most of these proposed new flags were of the beach towel variety with one proposed flag which can only be described as obscenity, and a gross one at that.
Republicans argue that three established facts about our Flag are untrue.
First that Australian Flag was adopted after an open public competition with very wide participation and support which was concluded under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia;
Second that there was never any requirement that our Flag include the Union Jack,and
Third, that it is the Flag under which Australians have served and died.
All are absolutely true. And Australians overwhelmingly love their beloved Australian Flag.
Republicans long opposed any requirement for a vote by the people on any change being inserted in the Flag Act or into the Constitution. They were especially annoyed when Parliament did this, and especially by the requirement that in any vote, the existing Flag be included for consideration.
(Most federal republican politicians had to go along with this reluctantly when they realised the changes would pass both houses – they did not want to be on the record opposing this , although previously they planned a change to take effect before 2000 without any vote by the people.)
A group of prominent republicans continues to campaign for a new flag. They have been careful to ensure none hold office in the republican movement, no doubt to give the impression the two campaigns are entirley separate. There can be little doubt that were a politicians' republic to be imposed, the Flag would be next in line.
As National Flag Day approaches why do the republican movement try to hide the fact that if we were to become a politician’s republic, the flag would have to go?
Before the referendum they were quite open about this, as the illustration below about an ARM supported exhibition shows. Most of the flags were of the beach towel variety, but one was outstanding. It had this charming invitation emblazoned across it: "F*** OFF BACK TO FAGLAND"
The ARM is embarassed to be reminded of this. But even their supporters in the media, for example The Age, agree the Flag could not survive Australia becoming a politicans' republic.
[ Campaign to bring down the Australian Flag supported by the Republican Movement ]
...new call for flag change...
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph on 19 August 2010, Greg Grant of Hurlstone Park in New South Wales gives the republican movement's game away, just as The Age has.
He criticises Tony Abbott for not wanting Australia to become a politicians’ republic. Tony Abbott says we are already a republic, a crowned republic.
Indicating the republican movement’s misunderstanding of the constitutional position he says we are the world’s 13th largest economy, “and we still don’t trust ourselves to run our country. “
Apparently Mr. Grant is unaware that on 21 August the people will be deciding precisely that.
Mr Grant ends his letter with this telling question:
“When will Australians have the courage to forge our own way forward under a flag we can all be proud of?”
The men in the illustration below were proud to serve under our Flag in the First World War, even if this republican in Sydney's inner Western suburbs is not.
When I argued in the nineties that the Flag be entrenched in the Constitution, the republican response was that no constitution does this. The republican movement was then quite open about this part of their agenda.
So I pointed to France as an example of a country whose constitution does precisely this. I preferred not to rely on the so called Soviet Constitution which also did this before that evil empire collapsed.
I was surprised when Kim Beazley, as a minister speaking on behalf of the Keating government, announced they would be changing the Flag before the Centenary of Federation. This would be done by Parliament; the people would not vote on this.
The Hawke government had done this on the National Anthem, but they could point to the results of the poll on a National Song held by the Fraser government.
But the Hawke government did ensure that God Save The Queen would be proclaimed as the Royal Anthem. And by the way, it was not to be restricted to those occasions when The Queen or a member of the Royal Family were present. It could continue to be played , as it always has been, as an integral part of the Anzac Dawn service.
...why are they so dishonest?..
That is until the creeping republicans banned the Royal Anthem on the spurious grounds that the young did not know the words. If they didn’t, would they have also memorised the great hymns traditionally sung at this service?
Why are republicans so duplicitous? Can't they just say what they are doing? It was the same when they moved a painting of The Queen from the public foyer of Parliament House in Sydney.
The republican politicians said it was being damaged....by the sun!
...the Flag and the Constitution...
The Flag Act, 1953 was amended in 1998 by a bill introduced by the Howard government. Under this, the Australian National Flag can only be changed after a poll in which a majority of the electors voting choose a new flag.
Having seen the trickery used by the Keating government over change to a politicians’ republic, the existing flag would have to be included in the choice.This requirement for a vote could of course be repealed by Parliament.
In 2003, in Twilight of the Elites, I proposed ten measures to restore the Federation. One of these was to entrench the flag into the Constitution so that it could only be changed after a referendum.
The Australian Flag Society has just proposed a referendum to declare English to be the national language, and to entrench in the Constitution both Australia Day and the Australian National Flag.
The text of the proposed bill follows. This is included in an essay by Nigel Morris on the Australian Conservative site.
….the proposed bill…
To approve the changes to the Constitution proposed in the Constitution Amendment (National Language, Holiday and Flag) Constitutional Amendment Bill, to declare English to be the national language, 26 January in each year to be Australia Day and a certain flag to be the Australian National Flag.
An Act to amend the Constitution to declare English to be the national language, 26 January in each year to be Australia Day and a certain flag to be the Australian National Flag.
1. The short title of this Act is the National Language, Holiday and Flag Act, 2009.
2. The Constitution is amended by the insertion of section 127, 127A and 127B as set out below:
Section 127 – Status of English LanguageEnglish is the national language of Australia
Section 127A – National Holiday
26 January in each year shall be Australia Day, being the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788.
Section 127B – Australian National Flag
A blue flag with the Union Jack occupying the upper hoist, a large white Commonwealth Star in the centre of the lower hoist and 5 white stars representing the Southern Cross constellation in the fly half.
War Memorials across the nation record that Australians served “For God, King and Country.” It is not fair to the memory, and it is not good for the nation for people to seek to diminish this. The beautiful document below was seen at the Cenotaph on ANZAC Day, 2010 in Sydney by Ben Zoffman, who has given us permission to use this.
Although unrelated to the soldier so honoured, his paternal grandfather Tom (who was born in Denmark and came to Australia in the 20's) was part of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles. Ben intends to march in his honour next year.
In the meantime, a reader Bruce Smith has undertaken a careful analysis of the Sixty Minutes programme on ANZAC Day to change our Flag .
A friend, who wants to change the flag, and I, (pro flag) each did a critique of the 60 Minutes programme. Although neither of us changed our position, we were both appalled at the quality of the programme. Kerry Packer would have turned in his grave on three counts:
1. 60 Minutes being used by one of its reporters to push his own agenda.
2. You, the moderator, abusing your position by being the major debater for change.
3. The biased editing.
I have attached two documents. The first is a cut and paste job of the published transcript placing pro and anti comments in their own sections. The result is shameful. The second is a critique of the questionable comments and editing. Sadly, yours and Peter FitzSimons’s and Pauline Hanson’s were the principal offenders with respect to questionable comments.
No Australian defence unit could have a more glorious history than the 2/13th Battalion. That anyone would disturb their luncheon reunion on ANZAC Day to campaign for a new flag is beyond understanding.
Yet Peter FitzSimons gate-crashed the 2/13th Battalion’s lunch at the Masonic Centre in Sydney on Anzac Day. Apart from the moderator, Ray Martin, he was the principal proponent for flag change in the controversial ANZAC Day 60 Minutes TV programme. He was also one of the founders of the republican " Mate for a Head of State" campaign.
[ A patrol from the 2/13th Battalion in no man's land, 8 September 1941, Tobruk, Libya. AWM 20779]
Peter FitzSimons approached Joe Madeley, the president of the 2/13th Association and asked for his support to get the Union Jack removed from the Australian Flag. Joe Madeley said “no”.
FitzSimons then turned to the rest of 2/13th members and said he wanted their support to get the Union Jack off the Australian Flag.
He was greeted with a resounding “no”.
....eight month Seige of Tobruk....
The men of the 2/13th Infantry Battalion hold the honour of enduring the eight-month Siege of Tobruk from start to finish in 1941. They were among the men the German propagandist Lord Haw Haw taunted as the "Rats of Tobruk" because of the way they dug in to survive.
They adopted the name with pride.
As their Association records, “their fallen comrades on the barren coast of North Africa grow not old, but those who are left grow old. No rat cunning can avoid the way the years condemn and yesterday another chapter in Australia's military history came to an end.”
[Mosaic at the foot of the Rats of Tobruk Memorial, Queen's Park, Mackay, Queensland, Australia. Indicated is the Rats of Tobruk Association insignia]
...glorious history...
The Australian War Memorail records that the 213th battalion was the first complete Australian unit to fight German troops in the Second World War. A summary of that entry follows.
The battle took place at Er Regima on 4 April 1940. The battalion was thinly spread along an 11 kilometre front against a German force of about 3,000 men. The battle began mid-afternoon and continued into the night. Outnumbered and vulnerable the battalion fought on until 10 pm before withdrawing. They initially moved of on foot but were soon picked up by trucks and driven 16 km east of Barce to rest.
By 9 April the 2/13th joined the rest of the division at Tobruk. It helped defend the “fortress” for eight months, being the only Australian battalion to see out the siege. It planned to evacuate in October but was delayed when their convey was forced to turn back from enemy air attack.
The 2/13th reached the forward British defences in mid-July and moved to Tel El Eisa in early-August. It fought in the Alamein battle from 23 October to 5 November 1942, remaining in Tobruk until the siege was lifted in December.
...service in the Pacific....
The 2/13th left Egypt in January 1943 and disembarked at Sydney in February. After leave and jungle training on the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland in August the battalion embarked for Milne Bay in Papua.
On 4 September the battalion departed Milne Bay on landing craft and landed on Red Beach, north-west of Lae, without casualties. It carried out subsequent jungle operations until Lae fell 12 days later.
The battalion also landed at Scarlet Beach near Finschhafen on 22 September, helping defend the area against Japanese counter-attack.The 2/13th returned to Australia in March 1944, disembarking in Brisbane. After leave, it reformed at Ravenshoe and did not return to action until the final months of the war.Towards the end of April the 9th Division was transported to Morotai to prepare for amphibious landings on Borneo as part of the OBOE operations.
The 2/13th landed at Brunei on 10 June before making another landing in the Miri–Lutong area ten days later. The battalion captured the Lutong airfield and oil tanks and moved inland along the Pujut Road to the Pujut oilfields.
It then moved along Canada Hill to Lobang, where it remained until the end of the war.Following Japan’s surrender, the 2/13th’s ranks thinned, as men were discharged or transferred.
The battalion moved to Luban in November and in December sailed to Australia to “wind up” in preparation for disbandment.
War Memorials across the nation record that Australians served “For God, King and Country.” It is not fair to the memory, and it is not good for the nation for people to seek to diminish this.
The beautiful document below was seen at the Cenotaph on ANZAC Day, 2010 in Sydney by Ben Zoffman who has given us permission to use this.
Although unrelated to the soldier so honoured, his paternal grandfather Tom (who was born in Denmark and came to Australia in the 20's) was part of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles. Ben intends to march in his honour next year.
....analysis of the 60 Minute programme...
In the meantime, a reader Bruce Smith has undertaken a careful analysis of the Sixty Minutes Flag programme on ANZAC Day. You may read this here. His email follows .l
Dear Mr Martin A friend, who wants to change the flag, and I, (pro flag) each did a critique of the 60 Minutes programme. Although neither of us changed our position, we were both appalled at the quality of the programme. Kerry Packer would have turned in his grave on three counts:
1. 60 Minutes being used by one of its reporters to push his own agenda
2. You, the moderator, abusing your position by being the major debater for change
3. The biased editing I have attached two documents.
The first is a cut and paste job of the published transcript placing pro and anti comments in their own sections. The result is shameful.
The second is a critique of the questionable comments and editing. Sadly, yours and Peter FitzSimons’s and Pauline Hanson’s were the principal offenders with respect to questionable comments.
Flag: Keep The Flag 
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