Nowadays, the republican agenda is to delay changing the flag until after a republic is established. When the republican movement thought Australians were going to vote for the model they had been allowed to design , they were quite open about changing it as soon as possible.
Even though they pretend that the flag is an entirely separate issue, this doesn’t stop the regular attacks on, or resistance to the flying of the flag.
Under the heading “Time to change our flag”, the Sydney Morning Herald published a letter from Mr. Greg Cavanagh of Lavington on 15 December, 2005. He drew a longbow, linking the recent riots in Sydney with our Flag:
“In the aftermath of the battle of Cronulla, is it time to have another look at changing our national flag? The de facto symbol used by the "yobbos" was the current Australian flag. One has to admit it is a pretty Anglo symbol. Does it really represent Australia anymore? It certainly does not represent anything pre-1788 and it does it really represent anything post-1950s.”
But those who went to Cronulla that day carried the flag because it is our national flag, not because it is a racist symbol.
Are we really saying we must abandon everything which links us with our past? Do we have to abandon our law, our parliamentary system, democracy itself , as well as the English language? These are the logical consequences of this demand.
In the days after Cronulla, a flag was pulled down and burned in Sydney, and car drivers were bashed when they replied in the affirmative to the question:”Are you Australian?”
Does this mean that the name of our country and of its citizens must change too? Are we to be something else than Australians. Even Paul Keating wanted to keep Australia in the new name of the country which he proposed, the Federal Republic of Australia.
Middle Eastern countries sometimes changed their names with remarkable ease. For a while the name of the "union" of Egypt and Syria, and then only Egypt, was the United Arab Republic.
In the meantime, NSW RailCorp, which is the current name of the NSW railways, has ordered a driver to remove the Australian flag from a guard’s side window. Apparently there was no safety issue – Railcorp was acting on a complaint which claimed that the display was racist because , believe it or not, “…… the driver was clearly Anglo Saxon”!
Can you believe that?
Reporting this, MX News asks readers to answer this question:
“Should train drivers be able to display Australian Flags in their cabins?” Email [email protected] or SMS 19994488.