Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last week we celebrated Australia Day and I rise to talk about a disgraceful act that occurred in my electorate of Swan during the Australia Day week. On Wednesday, my office received a call from Ms Sherryl Pattison of Carlisle, who had noticed that the Australian flag had been stolen from the pole in front of her garden, obviously on Australia Day. She dismissed the incident as youthful exuberance and larrikinism in celebrating our national day. It could be said that they wanted a flag because they were proud of our flag and desperately wanted one. When Sherryl came into my office the following morning, I was pleased to be able to provide her with a replacement under the Constituents Request Program.

However, on Thursday I received another call from Ms Pattison who was somewhat more distressed. This time, not only had her flag been stolen but her entire flagpole as well. The flagpole, which was found up the road in three separate pieces, had been torn from its substantial concrete base during the night. Police suggested to Sherryl that substantial tools would have had to be used to cut down the flagpole. I visited Sherryl in the afternoon and can only confirm that it must have taken some effort to drag down the pole and cut it up. This pole had had fond memories for Sherryl because it was raised by her late father, and she was distressed at the fact that it had been stolen. Neighbours later reported that a car pulled up into Ms Pattison’s drive in the middle of the night with extra tools to drag that pole down after the thieves could not pull it down on their own.

It is disappointing that people would do this anywhere in my electorate, but particularly in Carlisle, where there is a respected community of war veterans. I contacted Bill Gaynor, the president of the WA state branch of the RSL to alert them to this act—an act I would describe as an insult to all Australians who fought and died under our flag to protect the freedoms that we so treasure in Australia and Western Australia. I think it is outrageous that there are people who would go to this length to prevent someone from flying the Australian flag. I repeat: the flag is a symbol of our nation and I consider this act to be an insult to those who cherish our flag.

This is our nation’s flag. A recent ninemsn online survey found that 78 per cent of those who responded said that they wanted to keep the flag and not change it. I know there are some people in our society who do want to change it, but to steal someone’s flag and their flagpole, just so that they cannot fly our national symbol, seems a bit desperate to me. But the good news is that my office will be ringing Sherryl today to tell her that, with the assistance of Senator Chris Back, who is also outraged by this act, we will donate to her a new flagpole and a flag. Hopefully, by the middle of next week she will have a new flagpole.

On a more positive note, despite this act of vandalism, the majority of Western Australians had a great Australia Day. We in Perth tend to celebrate Australia Day with more fervour than the rest of the country. Hundreds of thousands of people descended on the South Perth, Victoria Park and Belmont foreshores in my electorate to watch the spectacular Skyworks. I would also like to particularly congratulate Mrs Jean Kelly of Victoria Park for winning a community award from the Town of Victoria Park.

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