Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Herbert for bringing on this motion to make it a criminal offence to deface or burn the Australian flag. The Australian flag is more than just a bit of fabric; it is our fabric. It is our values, our traditions, our history—everything that makes us Australian. This week we celebrate 124 years of our national flag—the same flag that our men and women, including the member for Herbert, served under; the same flag that men and women died under; and the same flag that draped their coffins.

The Australian flag symbolises the freedoms that they wanted for us then, now and into the future, and it symbolises everything good about Australia and everything good that Australian people do and give. You can also look at our sportspeople. Across the years, the Australian flag has draped their shoulders in Olympic Games and other sporting events across the world. Cathy Freeman, Betty Cuthbert—so many athletes held the Australian flag aloft and celebrated their wins and, quite often, celebrated their losses.

The Flags Act is now 70 years old. That's seven decades, and it is time that we upgraded it. We have seen, in recent weeks and months, people out there burning the Australian flag. I never thought that I'd stand in this place talking about the need to legislate and to prevent those people intent on doing harm to Australia by burning the Australian flag. I never thought I'd see that day. So what we would like to see is this government legislate to outlaw burning the Australian flag.

Some politicians have called it 'disappointing'. I'm sorry, but 'disappointing' is missing a bus when you're already running late. Burning the Australian flag is treacherous and treasonous, and it should bring with it the penalties that go along with being treacherous and treasonous. We should see jail sentences for burning the Australian flag, and, if you are not an Australian citizen, then you don't respect our Australian views and you should go back to your country. Your visa should be revoked on the spot.

You might say that it's not a violent act to burn the Australian flag, but it's violent in its intent. What it is saying to us Australians and to the 77 per cent who love our Australian flag is: 'We want to burn you down. We want to burn you down with your flag and replace it with our values—with values that we have brought from other places that don't sit well with Australian people.'

How did we get here? We got here because we have been far too tolerant for far too long. Well, tolerance no more. This government needs to legislate now to criminalise the burning of the flag, to put in place fines and imprisonment for Australian citizens and to revoke the visas of noncitizens, because we have had enough. Us Australians love our flag and we will protect it by all means.

See this speech in context