Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tomorrow commemorates National Flag Day. We honour a symbol that embodies the heart and soul of our nation: our national flag. It is a flag that doesn't just represent government or geography; it represents the people of Australia—our history, our values, our sacrifices and our aspirations.

On 29 April 1901, our first prime minister, Edmund Barton, announced a competition to design the flag. Despite having just 32 days to get entries, more than 32,000 Australians responded. That alone says something deeply profound—that, from the beginning, Australians were united by a shared sense of identity and purpose. Of course, the winning design wasn't the work of a single group, authority or bureaucracy but five ordinary Australians: a schoolboy, an optician's apprentice, an architect, an artist and a ship's officer. What could be more fitting than our national flag, the emblem of the people, being designed by the people?

On 3 September 1901, the flag was raised for the first time above the dome of Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building, which was the site of the first Commonwealth parliament. As the Brisbane Courier declared at the time, 'Nationhood is better for the concrete expression, and nothing will stir up enthusiasm or rouse the sense of regard for the country in which we live like a constant sight of the flag of Australia.' They were right, and they still are.

Every element of our flag tells part of Australia's story. The Southern Cross, shining in our stars and celebrated by our Indigenous cultures, speaks to our unique place in the world. I remember walking around our farm at night as a young kid knowing that that was the best way to navigate and find your way around, and it still is. The Union Jack acknowledges the British heritage that gifted the institutions of democracy and rule of law and a society grounded in Christian values and civic virtue. The Commonwealth star, with the seven points, reminds us of our unity across six states and our territories.

Under this flag, generations have served and sacrificed. It has flown above battlefields from Gallipoli to Afghanistan. It's been draped over the coffins of the fallen—the more than 103,000 Australians who gave their lives in defence of freedom. The flag has been worn with honour by soldiers, sailors and airmen. It has stood in the face of tyranny. It has greeted returning Olympians. It has been raised on construction sites, farm houses, schools and scout hall walls. It belongs to all Australians.

Unlike many other nations, we were formed without civil war, without violent revolution and without entrenched tribal conflict. Geoffrey Blainey has called this 'the great Australian achievement'. Yes, we recognise dark chapters—the mistreatment of Indigenous Australians, the appalling treatment of our Vietnam veterans—but we do so without tearing down the whole story, because the story of Australia is one of progress, not perfection. We've been successful not in spite of our differences but because of the values we share—mateship, fairness, respect, responsibility and patriotism. These values bind us no matter our ancestry, our religion, our postcode or our profession.

But, sadly, we now live in a time where our flag is under attack. On Sunday 3 August, footage emerged of protesters in Melbourne burning our national flag. On the same weekend, on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we saw a so-called peaceful rally filled with genocidal slogans, Hamas flags, Nazi swastikas and images of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This isn't peaceful protest; it's self-loathing. It's divisive, it's disgraceful and it's dangerous. Worse still, the Prime Minister described it as peaceful.

When it comes to our national flag, he seems reluctant to even stand in front of it without being flanked by two others. We have one national flag, our sovereign identity—one standard under which we unite. While we must always uphold the right to protest peacefully, we must equally uphold the right to defend what is good, what is right and what is unifying in this country. It's not just a piece of cloth; it's a symbol of hard won freedoms, sacrifice and shared identity. We must remind those who burn our flag that, in doing so, they reveal far more about themselves than they do about the country they live in. We are lucky to live in this country. We are blessed to be Australians. We should never be ashamed to just say so, so, today, on National Flag Day, I ask you not just to look up at our flag but to live up to its values.