Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I'm delighted to speak today about the history and importance of the Australian national flag. The Australian national flag was designed and adopted as a result of a public competition over 120 years ago. It wasn't created by politicians and bureaucrats but by Australians themselves. The competition received 32,823 entries, with the winning design being won by five almost identical entries. Each of the five winners shared in 200 pounds of prize money—that's almost $30,000 today. The joint winners were Annie Dorrington, a well-known artist from Perth; Ivor Evans, a 14-year-old Melbourne schoolboy whose father owned a flag-making business; Lesley Hawkins, an 18-year-old from Leichhardt who was apprenticed to a Sydney optician; Eggbert Nutall, an architect with the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works; and William Stevens, a first officer with the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. When you think about the diversity of that group—different ages, different occupations, living in different parts of Australia and even New Zealand—it underscores the point that our flag belongs to all of us. As the former Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove said:

Ultimately, our flag serves as a potent symbol of our nation. One nation, of many backgrounds, but ultimately united together by shared values and ideals and a respect for each other and the diversity that is the very essence of who we are.

The Australian national flag has three elements on a blue background: the Union Jack, the Commonwealth star and the Southern Cross. The Union Jack in the upper left corner represents the history and contribution of Britain to Australia. Our law, our language, our freedoms, our culture and many of our social norms are part of our British inheritance. Below the Union Jack is the white Commonwealth or Federation star. It has seven points representing the unity of the six states and the seventh, added in 1908, represents the territories of the Commonwealth. The star is also featured on the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. The Southern Cross is shown on the flag in white. It's a constellation of five stars that can only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere and is a reminder of Australia's geography.

The flag was flown for the first time on 3 September 1901 at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne. On that day, Prime Minister Edmund Barton announced the winners of the competition. A large flag, 5.5 metres by 11 metres, was flown over the dome at the building. Each year Australia marks National Flag Day on 3 September. This year is the flag's 120th birthday.

In February 1903, King Edward VII officially approved the design for the official Australian flag and the Australian red ensign for Australia's merchant ships and private pleasure craft. It's a flag that we've carried into battle. It's a flag raised at moments of remembrance like Anzac Day and a flag raised at moments of celebration like the Olympics and Paralympics. I was moved earlier this year when I saw the damage the floods on the Hawkesbury River had created. Those floods destroyed the St George caravan park at Lower Portland in my electorate. But among the debris was a solitary Australian flag, tattered but still flying, a beacon of hope at a time of tragedy.

An amendment to the Flags Act was introduced by the Howard government and passed in 1998 to ensure that the Australian national flag could only be changed with the agreement of the Australian people at a referendum. This was to protect the flag from the designs of Ausflag and some members of the Labor Party who wanted to see the flag changed. I believe our flag should never be changed.

The Australian National Flag Association was formed in 1983 to promote our flag and educate people about it, and I note that their longtime office bearer John Christian Vaughan was recently awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia at the Queen's Birthday awards.

Australian National Flag Day is an opportunity for people to celebrate with pride the anniversary of our flag. I encourage people in my electorate and across Australia to fly or display the Australian national flag every day, but particularly this Friday, to show pride in Australia, its history, its institutions and to celebrate the 120th birthday of our amazing flag.

I want to finish my remarks with a poem by Robert Northover, written in 1986, called Our Flag:

Our Flag wears the stars that blaze at night,

In our Southern skies of blue,

And a little old flag in the corner,

That's part of our heritage too.

It's for the English, the Scots and the Irish,

Who were sent to the ends of the earth,

The rogues and schemers, the doers and dreamers,

Who gave modern Australia its birth.

And you, who are shouting to change it,

You don't seem to understand,

It's the flag of our laws and our language,

Not the flag of a faraway land.

Though there are plenty of people who'll tell you,

How when Europe was plunged into night,

That little old flag in the corner,

Was their symbol of freedom and light.

It doesn't mean we owe allegiance,

To a forgotten imperial dream,

We've the stars to show where we're going,

And the old flag to show where we've been.

It's only an old piece of bunting,

It's only an old piece of rag,

But there are thousands who've died for its honour,

And shed of their blood for OUR FLAG.

I particularly want to acknowledge the contributions of others who have spoken in this debate, in particular the very good speech by my friend the member for North Sydney, who reminded us that the Southern Cross doesn't just remind us of our own geography but has particular resonance for the Indigenous Australians as well. As the chair of the House Indigenous affairs committee I also want to elevate that point. Thank you.

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