Thread: Now that's a flag!

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

And I can think of better things to spend $26,000,000 on.

Did you listen to what I linked to?

Major Corporations pay as much or more to get their identities right. $26,000,000. is peanuts for s symbol as important as that.

Originally Posted by cuppabillytea

Major Corporations pay as much or more to get their identities right. $26,000,000. is peanuts for s symbol as important as that.

Major corporations can spend their money how ever they like.

Changing the flag is spending some of my money and I don't want it changed.

Governments waste enough as it is. Our flag is 113 years old and is serving us well.

So what if it has a union jack in the corner. Does it matter?

If it aint broke don't try and fix it.

Originally Posted by Ausfree

I've said it before and I will say it again the Australian and New Zealand flags look like Great Britain at night and it is about time we stepped off the pommy apronstrings. New flag well overdue.

Yes, the opinions on either side of the argument are pretty strong but I believe as time goes by and we distance ourselves more and more from Great Britain it will be realised we need a flag to give us an individual identity, not some colonial offshoot of the "mother country".

The flag discussion aside, why would we want to distance ourselves from GB ??

Originally Posted by MrLandy

It's heartening to read so many AULRO members who support a change of flag.

NZ result was predictable, just like it would be here. Not even a change when there was such a strong alternative and symbolic icon like the silver fern. What hope do we have with boxing kangaroo kitsch or a footy instead of the Union Jack?

AULRO flag designing Comp? ...But somehow I don't think the green oval will cut it as a replacement for Union Jack! 😳

There appears to be a school of thought that most Kiwis wanted the silver fern option. However, it was a referendum and most picked the "strongest" option.

Also, if you are of the opinion that if a similar referendum was held here and the result was the same then surely you would concede that the majority of Aussies do not want a new flag. I think $26m (some of which is mine) could be far better spent somewhere else if the outcome is so "predictable"

Presumably those who want to distance themselves from the origins of the country, shown by the union flag, will also want to change to a more distinctive political structure and scrap the Westminster system. Oh, and the Common Law as well. Perhaps we should change our official language as well, since it is also a "colonial remnant".

Whether you want to ignore it or not, most of the basic structures of our society come from our colonial history, certainly modified by over two hundred years of a vastly different physical and social environment and nearly a century of effective independence (since the Statute of Westminster). I suggest that changing the flag is unnecessary, and is urged by those who have some sort of an axe to grind about much more important changes to our society. These changes are very unlikely to actually happen except over a very long time.

Changing our head of state is a different matter, and I expect that this will happen in the relatively near future, perhaps even in my lifetime, but only when it is supported by a large majority of Australians. But this does not have to require a change in flag - after all, the Hawaii State flag still includes a Union flag in the canton.

The other problem is that of finding an alternative to the current flag that is acceptable to a majority. This seems very unlikely at present, although I can't rule it out - someone may come up with a design that a majority finds sufficiently more attractive than the present one.

Interestingly, changes in other country's flags tend to come with revolutions, or coups, or are imposed by authoritarian governments. Examples where flags have been replaced in democracies are quite rare, and tend to be where a politically important substantial minority has strong objections to the existing flag. One example is the redesigned Canadian flag - where a traditionally anti-British French speaking minority had to be appeased, or in South Africa where a Boer population that held power with a minority wanted under apartheid to distance themselves from British democratic institutions.

John

It's interesting that no flag has been changed when the people have been involved. All flag changes have been made by a person in power.

What is also interesting is that NZ had two referenda. The first to decide on the best of four designs to challenge the existing flag, in which the fern design won. The next to decide if that design would replace the existing design.

Another thing that I found interesting was this fellow:


was against the NZ flag to be changed.
He described the new design as a beach towel. He might be right. It makes a good beach towel.

I think it should be used as a sporting flag, much the same way we use the boxing kangaroo. It is much nicer than the boxing kangaroo. Less juvenile.

If a flag tells something about its country, what is the Torries Strait Islands telling the rest of the world?

Originally Posted by pop058

The flag discussion aside, why would we want to distance ourselves from GB ??

Um.. Because they have been distancing themselves from us since 1788 accept when it suits them.