The Australian Flag and Unity, A Conservative Perspective.

Division in Australia unfortunately runs far deeper than disagreement over our flag [3 minute read]

Recently controversy has been stoked in conservative circles by divisive political decisions to elevate the Aboriginal flag to the same prominence as the Australian flag. Greens party leader Adam Bandt removed the Australian flag from his press conference, leaving only the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags as his backdrop. This followed Anthony Albanese’s break with tradition, choosing to stand the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags beside each other behind him during his press conferences. Dominic Perrottet also chose to spend $25 Million to mount the Aboriginal flag aside the Australian flag over the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

This has led many to question, ‘how can Australia be unified if we aren’t even represented by the same flag’. The truth is that the flag debate is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the topic of Australia’s divisions, The National Observer in this article will explore some of the controversial and pressing fault lines present in Australian society.

Although the contents of this article may be controversial, it is not written with any animosity to the communities discussed. Rather National Observer hopes to highlight a very real concern which will not be solved through ignorance.

Australia: Division deeper than a flag
Up until the 1970s Australia was made up of three broad ethnic groups, Anglo-Saxon, Irish and Aboriginal. Notably, for most of their history on this content none of these groups have co-existed harmoniously. Nowadays Irish and Anglo-Saxon Australians often list their background as broadly ‘Australian’, despite this sectarian and ethnic animosity has defined the relationship between the two relitively similar groups for the majority of Australia’s history. To believe that the wildly disparate groups which make up modern Australia will be unified in the near future is to be blind to history, below I have listed just a few examples of the difficulty of assimilating new populations into a unified Australia.

In the 2022 election, according to recent polls, Scott Morrison actually turned away Chinese voters because he chose to take a tough stance on China. Meaning a portion of one of Australia's largest ethnic groups feel greater allegiance to another country and its government than the interests of Australia.

Jumping back to last year, following a 2021 skirmish in the Middle East between Israeli and Palestinian forces, many pro-Palestine protests broke out across various Australian cities, although these events were seized upon by left-wing activists, the majority in attendance were either ethnically or religiously aligned with Palestine, notably, the symbol of Australian citizens who supported Palestine was not the Australian flag but the Palestinian flag. The same can be said about Pro-Israel protests which are held every year, at which the Israeli flag, not the Australian flag is flown. 

Looking even further back in history to some of the earliest non-Anglo/Irish immigrants to arrive in Australia, Europeans such as Greeks and Italians arrived en-masse. These communities still strongly culturally associate with their country of origin, an association which is echoed in following generations. 

Finally, turning our eye to the population that has co-existed with Anglo/Irish Australia the longest - Aboriginals - we see on the whole an unfortunate lack of assimilation - the need for a separate flag is just one proof of this phenomenon. 

These developments and trends would not necessarily be of concern to Australian unity if enthusiasm for shared Australian traditions, culture and faith exceeded the above-listed foreign allegiances. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
A very telling example is Anzac day. Despite Australia’s population experiencing growth year after year from new migrants, attendance at events commemorating Australia’s history, such as ANZAC day, have experienced a sharp drop in attendance. Another example is the call for ‘Merry Christmas’ to be replaced with ‘Happy Holidays’ in an attempted inclusion of the disparate cultures of modern Australia.

Anglo-Saxon and Irish Australians originate from neighboring islands, share a language, religion, and a similar culture, yet true unity took 200 years to achieve. How can we expect unity in an Australia that now hosts 270 disparate ethnic groups? Largely, these groups do not share a common language, history, culture or religion with the historical Anglo-Celtic Australian nation. Where Australia’s flag is positioned on a stage will not resolve this.