Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to record in the House tonight my appreciation of the patriotism of the Liberal councillors of Waverley Council in my electorate. Last year Councillor Joy Clayton, a Liberal councillor, moved a motion, seconded by a Greens councillor, Dominic Wy Kanak, in Waverley Council that the Australian flag and the Aboriginal flag should fly from the Bondi Pavilion—surely the most iconic building on Australia’s most famous and most loved beach, Bondi Beach. That motion was rejected by a vote of the other Greens councillors, led by the mayor, Mora Main, and the entire Labor Party contingent. Every single one of the members of the Labor Party voted against flying the Australian flag. When they were called upon by the people of Waverley and Sydney and the newspapers of Sydney to explain this extraordinary action, what did they say? They said, ‘We were concerned it would promote disharmony, hatred and dissent.’ They were afraid to fly the flag of this nation above our most famous beach. They were afraid to fly the flag of Australia on the beach that the entire world associates with our nation.

Bondi Beach is more than just a beautiful strand of sand, great waves, lifesavers and swimmers. Bondi Beach is a home to Australians and visitors from every corner of the world. I was on the 380 bus not so long ago and I was listening to two young Irish people sitting behind me. One of them said to the other, ‘Pat, where are you living nowadays?’ and he said, ‘I’m living in County Bondi.’ Bondi is in fact the home of St Patrick’s Church, the home of the Irish chaplain in Australia. It is home to a very large Jewish population. It is home to a very large Russian population. Bondi, in its diversity, mirrors the diversity of Australia, and that diversity is bound together by a common commitment to our Australian values and symbols, principal amongst which is the flag.

The Liberal councillors who supported flying the flag in the face of the craven betrayal of our national symbol by the Labor Party and a few Greens were councillors Joy Clayton, Sally Betts, Kerryn Sloan, Tony Kay and Richard Davidson. They stood up for Australia late last year and they were voted down because they did not have the numbers. But the outrage, the amazement and the disgust of the community of Waverley was such that last week the council backtracked. I am pleased to say that even the Labor Party finally saw the light and the council has voted to fly the flag from the Bondi Pavilion, a building in the centre of Bondi Beach from which the flag flew many years ago.

The number of excuses that were offered by the various Labor councillors as to why the flag should not be flown was remarkable. They had the ‘promoting civil unrest’ excuse; they had the heritage excuse. ‘We’d need to do a heritage study,’ they said. That was blown up when the Daily Telegraph published a photograph of the Bondi Pavilion from the 1930s showing two large flags flying from the roof. So they had all their excuses, but at the very base of it they were ashamed in the wake of the Cronulla riot into saying: ‘This is Australia. We believe in Australia. We are all Australians.’ I am proud that my community, one of the most diverse in Australia, with people from every corner of the world, to a man and woman was ashamed of the vote of those Labor Party and Greens councillors. I am pleased to see that that community reaction has resulted in the patriotic endeavours of the Liberal councillors finally finding a majority. I am sure that all of us here in this House, even the honourable members opposite, will be pleased when the flag flies at Bondi. (Time expired)