A Bill For The Eureka Flag

Parliament has tabulated in amongst others, a bill to have the Eureka Flag added to the Flags Act 1953 , and recognized as an official Flag of Australia.

Eureka!

I do not think it will pass, it appears to be a bill from the Senate, and written by Victorian Labor Senator Gavin Marshall , so it probably has a chance of buckleys and none, being up against the increasingly conservative and authoritarian Liberal Party dominated parliament.

The legislation is interesting as in the past the Governor-General has used Section 5 to appoint Flags of Australia.

The Governor-General may, by Proclamation, appoint such other flags and ensigns of Australia as he thinks fit.

And the monarchists claim the Governor-General has no political roll? Bill Hayden appointed the Aboriginal Flag as an official Flag of Australia through this section. If that is not political, I do not know what is. Other proclaimed flags include the Torres Strait Islander Flag, the Red Ensign, the Naval Ensign, the Governor's flags etc.

The Imagining Australia folks have advocated that Australian nationalism align itself with the Eureka Stockade narrative. They also advocate the Eureka Flag being the Australian National Flag;

We strongly believe that Australia should adopt the Eureka Flag as our new national flag. Described by the Age in the 1850s as the 'Australian Flag of Independence', the Eureka Flag is uniquely Australian, aesthetically beautiful and rich in symbolism.

We can probably thank Raffaelo Carboni for capturing Peter Lalor's speech on the unveiling of the Eureka flag. It successfully, and forever entwined Australian liberty with the imagery of the Southern Cross;

Peter Lalor, our Commander-in-chief, was on the stump, holding with his left hand the muzzle of his rifle, butt-end rested on his foot. A gesture of his right hand, signified what he meant when he said; "It is my duty now to swear you in, and to take with you the oath to be faithful to the Southern Cross. Hear me with attention. The man who, after this solemn oath does not stand by our standard, is a coward at heart."

"I order all persons who do not intend to take the oath, to leave the meeting at once."

"Let all divisions under arms 'fall in' in their round the flag-staff"

The movement was made accordingly. Some five hundred armed diggers advanced in real sober earnestness, the captains of each division making the military salute to Lalor, who now knelt down, the head uncovered, and with the right hand pointing to the standard exclaimed in a firm measured tone:-

"We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other, and fight to defend our rights and liberties."

An universal well rounded amen, was the determined reply, some five hundred right hands stretched towards our flag.

Though in terms of rich symbolism, Eureka is aided by the Ballaraat Reform League's chartist goals , which included liberty, democracy and the defeat of tyranny.

Citizen Flags

I made a Citizen's Bill in the past , which would add language to the Flags Act enabling citizens to petition the Governor-General to add flags as Australian Flags under Section 5. The purpose of this is to expose the Australian national Flag to competition and popular opinion. Those that like the Blue Ensign can continue to fly it as the Australian National Flag, and those that don't, can fly something else that is also appointed as the Australian National Flag.

This is a way of satiating both camps, those that want the Blue Ensign to remain, and those that would prefer something else to represent them as Australians. Our flag is weak as a unifying symbol anyway. It is unthinkable for an American to use anything other than the Star Spangled banner when identifying themselves as American. Same for Canadians and their distinctive Maple Leaf flag. Australians however use multiple flags, Boxing Matilda, Eureka, the Aboriginal Flag and the Blue Ensign. The Australian National Flag is not a universal, nor unifying force - it needs to be exposed to the competition of popular opinion.

Conclusion

The Eureka Stockade flag is not my Australian National Flag of choice, but far be it for me to deny it being elevated to an official Australian Flag for those that want it there. I would prefer it was done through Section 5 by the Governor-General, as I can see a strong tradition arising from that. Increased choice is good, so I am for the elevation of the Eureka Flag, as long as it doesn't come at the expense of the Blue Ensign, or any other flag.

The Flag Issue

cam: Using the Eureka Motif for the State Flags: I have done in the past NSW;

and Queensland;

I couldn\'t get Victoria, South Australia or Western Australia to come out with a nice Eureka based design, the colours weren\'t right. But Tasmania, despite a red and green background came out well;

However I remain a fan of Brendon Jones\' Australian Pale state flags.

cam
Felix the Cassowary: Governor-General\'s proclaimed flags: Regarding the Governor-General\'s ability to proclaim flags, were they actually proclaimed by the various Governor-Generals of their own initiative, without any oversight by the Cabinent? I always assumed that the G.-G.\'s ability to proclaim flags was just Westminster Government style language: The G.-G. proclaims the flag, but he\'d only do it if the Prime Minister of the day \"advised\" him to, and if the PM had advised him, then he\'d do it. This is not part of a political role of a Governor-General, no more so than the fact that till Commonwealth legislation has the G-G\'s signature (or the Queen\'s), it\'s not in force. It\'s just a piece of eccentric wording a hundreds-years-old governmental system is likely to have, and a very smart way of allowing future evolution: saying \"Prime Minister\" makes it harder to allow alternations between a presidential the-Prime-Minister-is-king system like we currently have, and a collegial the-Prime-Minister-is-first-amongst-equals system like we used to have, and I expect we will have once again.

But you\'re saying, to the contrary, that (some of the) proclaimed flags were proclaimed by a Governor-General on his own initiative, without the Prime Minister first advising him to do so? That would indeed by an unexpected use of the Governor-General\'s power. I would\'ve thought a constitutional crisis would\'ve ensued, but I haven\'t heard of any.
avocadia: I red carded myself: I have banned myself from making up flag designs. After my last effort, which Cam so foolishly/cruelly (:- ) made a reality, I think y\'all will thank me.
avocadia: Politics prevented crisis:

The wording of the section seems to me (IANAL) to give the GG the power to declare flags as Australian flags on his own. Section 63 of the Constitution caveats all references to the GG in the Constitution as really meaning the PM and his cabinet. Unless there is some other piece of legislation extending section 63 to be a blanket qualifier on all references to the Governor-General within and outside of the Constitution, then we may believe that the power granted in the flags act is unexpected but it is only because we have fooled ourselves into believing it so.

Even if it was unexpected, the GG stole a march on the PM. I am of the opinion that it would have created a worse constitutional crisis for the PM to step in and overruke the proclamation. There would have been some hair-splitting on exactly where the letter of the law was trumped by expectation, and it would have highlighted the dysfunctional state of the Australian executive. This would not have suited Howard\'s politics, so not crisis. On the other hand, we did get a crisis, or at least a media beatup, when WIlliam Deane turned out to have an opinion on Aboriginal affairs markedly counter to that of Howard. The difference was, there wasno exercise of power involved, so all Howard had to do was a quick, public "back in your box."
cam: Except: The Tasmanian one is almost exactly the same as the one you described, but with the white stars, instead of yellow. ... I think your red card was removed at the tribunal.

cam
cam: I had a quick look in Hayden\'s biogaphy: I couldnt find it. I know it is mentioned in there, but it isnt indexed, and I havent made a note on the inside cover about it. I will have a mroe detailed look when I have time. I got the the impression that it was the Governor-General\'s decision, previously it had been so defence flags and state governor flags could be made \"flag of Australia\" (the GG is the commander in chief after all). But this was an extensions of it, and a positive one IMO.

Surey Bill Hayden has an email address, we should probably try and ask him ourselves the circumstances and events around it.

cam
cam: Trackbacks: Road To Surfdom, Imagining Australia:

cam
cam: The Goggles, they do nothing: Ugh, 1997 called and wanted its frontpage theme back . The GG\'s site isn\'t pretty.

I emailed the GG office asking about the circumstances. The guts of the email;

I was wondering about the circumstances of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander flags being elevated to official flags of Australia using Section 5 of the Flags Act.

Can that authority be used by the Governor-General without advice from Cabinet? Or does the authority to use Section have to come from Cabinet first, and then be implemented by the Governor-General?

cam
cam: Western Australia Eureka-ised:

Though the Eureka southern cross is turned on its side in a mimicry of the Australia Pale design. But if that is the case, it may as well be a proper Australia Pale design instead - like this one .

Stars might look better white too.

cam

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