New flag for OZ

[fabulousphil]

This is not new but i was keen on other peoples opinions.

Should OZ have a new flag.

With the Commonwealth games starting soon and no doubt Oz winning oodles of Gold, silver and bronze i cringe every time i see the union jack raised with a couple of stars on it.

Im personally a 6th generation aussie and i realize and respect our history and the great ties that we have with GB but surely we dont need their flag as well, i remember being a kid at school and hearing god save the queen as our national anthem------ now how ridiculous is that.

Its about time we got our own flag, one that means Australia

 

[daicos4ever]

Bloody oath we should. Why bear the mark of another country on our flag?

 

[daicos4ever]

Originally posted by Brett Li


bloody Oath, you guys share the same Queen as another country

Thanks to New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.

Hopefully not for much longer though.

 

[daicos4ever]

Originally posted by Brett Li


You may find changing the language a little more problematic

Haha.

 

[Mr Eagle]

Originally posted by daicos4ever


Thanks to New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.

Actually that should be "Thanks to everyone except the ACT" - it was the only state or territory to vote a majority Yes in the '99 referendum...

 

[daicos4ever]

Originally posted by Mr Eagle
Actually that should be "Thanks to everyone except the ACT" - it was the only state or territory to vote a majority Yes in the '99 referendum...

Victoria voted Yes, not ACT.

 

[Mr Eagle]

Originally posted by daicos4ever
Victoria voted Yes, not ACT.

Bzzzzt...wrong. As much as it pains me to use a Monarchist source for this information, you can find the results at

http://www.statusquo.org/referendum.htm

ACT voted 63% yes on the republic question, Victoria was next closest on 49.8%

 

[daicos4ever]

Hmm, what am I thinking of then? I remember people saying Victoria were the only 'Yes' State.

 

[Lethal]

Originally posted by daicos4ever
Hmm, what am I thinking of then? I remember people saying Victoria were the only 'Yes' State.

Yeah, I thought the same thing.

 

[The Hitman]

Nah. I used to think we should change it, but I'm a bit indifferent now. I haven't seen any good alternatives yet.

The Hitman

 

[aggels]

It was definitely stated at the time that Vic was the yes state.

The problem with that referendum was that it was only for one particular model of a republic, and one that not many people agreed with, giving more power to the type of politicians that don't know quite what to do with it all. What they should have done was put a referendum on who wants to do away with the british monarchy ruling Australia, and then discussing what type. I'm sure if they'd done it that way there would have been an overwhelming vote in favour of a republic.

Of course I don't know if that's possible.

As for the flag, I couldn't care less to be honest, it's just a flag. Can anyone think of anything meaningful to go on the flag? I mean, anything with any real truth to it, rather than the fake national pride that it seems we're trying to forge. It won't happen if it's not how Aussies feel. Nowadays I'm starting to think that we'd probably be quite accurate in adopting the American flag and fusing the southern cross on top of their stars. It's a bit of a joke changing the flag constantly. But like I said it's just a flag, a piece of fabric with a little pattern on it. While we're at it, lets change the national anthem... cause you know, we feel like it and stuff. And now that the sports stars actually know it, it'll be good for a change...

 

[Sydneyfan]

I believe that we should change the flag, though the difficult task is going to be what exactly to settle on, many people have many varying ideas on what flag should represent Australia...many like our current flag...many don't but can't settle on a suitable alternative...many don't really care either way. That's why it could (and probably should) take a long while for the public to view various designs, shortlist the better options and finally settle on a new flag representative of Australia, that's if the majority of Australians actually want a new flag via referendum.

They should have another competition (like they did for our current flag) and open it up to the public to design flags with the incentive of prizemoney for the winner/s, one of the winners of the current flag design was a 12 year old kid at the time, many years ago!

There's a few websites around which display prospective designs for a new Australian flag, one of them being...Blatant plug...
my Australian flags page. Let us know what you think of them, whether they're worthy to represent Australia or not!

 

[dbcrow]

No Way!!!!

No way should we change the Australian flag.

I'm not a monarchist at all (in fact I voted YES in the referendum a couple of years ago), but that flag is part of Australia's heritage, and we do have a British background, whether we like it or not.

This is not my reason for retaining the flag though:

My reason for retaining the flag is that too many Australian soldiers have fought and died under this flag.

Having been overseas a few months ago, and missing Australia (and Australians) tremendously, I know that there is no greater spine tingling moment, than to be in France or Italy or wherever and see the Australian flag on the back of somebody's backpack, it is an amazing feeling.

It's part of who we are as a nation, and to change it would be an injustice to all those who have fought under it.

Cheers

 

[Portia]

Keep the current flag. Just about every alternate flag I've seen is pretty foul.

 

[Hank Jones]

Re: No Way!!!!

Originally posted by dbcrow
No way should we change the Australian flag.

I'm not a monarchist at all (in fact I voted YES in the referendum a couple of years ago), but that flag is part of Australia's heritage, and we do have a British background, whether we like it or not.

This is not my reason for retaining the flag though:

My reason for retaining the flag is that too many Australian soldiers have fought and died under this flag.

Having been overseas a few months ago, and missing Australia (and Australians) tremendously, I know that there is no greater spine tingling moment, than to be in France or Italy or wherever and see the Australian flag on the back of somebody's backpack, it is an amazing feeling.

It's part of who we are as a nation, and to change it would be an injustice to all those who have fought under it.

Cheers

This British background you speak of. Do you mean the colonising British who attempted to rid us of the true Australians?
I, for one, am ashamed to see people consider us close to these marauding colonisers.

 

[kaz68]

Originally posted by Mr Eagle
Bzzzzt...wrong. As much as it pains me to use a Monarchist source for this information, you can find the results at

http://www.statusquo.org/referendum.htm

ACT voted 63% yes on the republic question, Victoria was next closest on 49.8%

I think "YES" still out-voted "NO" which was why Victoria was reported as a "YES" win.

The informal vote was the difference between the percentages.

Having worked for the ARM and being an unashamed Republican I can say that I like our current flag, but think a minor change is a good idea. Simply lose the Union Flag in the corner and replace it with something more symbolic of our nation as it is today.

Kaz

 

[dbcrow]

Re: Re: No Way!!!!

Originally posted by Hank Jones


This British background you speak of. Do you mean the colonising British who attempted to rid us of the true Australians?
I, for one, am ashamed to see people consider us close to these marauding colonisers.

As I said previously, whether we like it or not, it's our heritage and the history of our country.

Removing the Union Jack from the flag is not going to change history.

Cheers

 

[Hank Jones]

Re: Re: Re: No Way!!!!

Originally posted by dbcrow


As I said previously, whether we like it or not, it's our heritage and the history of our country.

Removing the Union Jack from the flag is not going to change history.

Cheers

I still disagree that it's 'our' heritage. None of my family are of English background and the same goes for a good percentage of Australians. Australia is a multi-cultural country made up of many different backgrounds.
Removing the Union Jack gives us 'our' identity and not that of another country. Seeing the Union Jack on the flag does not send us all into raptures like your good self.

 

[dbcrow]

Re: Re: Re: Re: No Way!!!!

Originally posted by Hank Jones


I still disagree that it's 'our' heritage. None of my family are of English background and the same goes for a good percentage of Australians. Australia is a multi-cultural country made up of many different backgrounds.
Removing the Union Jack gives us 'our' identity and not that of another country. Seeing the Union Jack on the flag does not send us all into raptures like your good self.

Absolutely, Australia is a multi-cultural society, I'm not disputing that..... What I'm saying is that British settlement is part of Australian History.

See original post as to why I don't want the flag changed, that's what it comes down to (for me). If not for that, then I would say absolutely change the flag.

Cheers

 

[Sydneyfan]

Re: No Way!!!!

Originally posted by dbcrow

This is not my reason for retaining the flag though:

My reason for retaining the flag is that too many Australian soldiers have fought and died under this flag.

Having been overseas a few months ago, and missing Australia (and Australians) tremendously, I know that there is no greater spine tingling moment, than to be in France or Italy or wherever and see the Australian flag on the back of somebody's backpack, it is an amazing feeling.

It's part of who we are as a nation, and to change it would be an injustice to all those who have fought under it.

Cheers

I understand your point of view and quite like our flag apart from two factors: 1) the Union Jack, having another country's flag on the top left hand corner of your flag, gives the impression that you're still dependent of that nation - this is definitely not the case and we all now that Australia is a fully independent and multicultural nation though it's amazing how many people overseas still view Australia as the place where the British dumped their convicts, and nothing much has changed since , having their flag on the top left hand corner of ours illustrates that Australia is still somewhat dependent on Britain; and 2) it's too similar to the NZ flag.

The above might sound like a load of bulldust and a lot of it probably is but people strongly associate with symbols and images, which makes flags such strong symbols (however many may find them irrelevant). Just like a flag with a Cresent Moon illustrates that that country is Islamic and the Star of David illustrates that Israel is Jewish, having the Union Jack on our flag implies that we are still British, which is not the case but nevertheless many round the world still view us this way.

Below are my feelings on our current flag and the reasons why I believe we should change the flag:

Over the last few years in Australia there has been quite a bit of debate concerning the Australian flag. Many people feel that the Australian flag should be changed to further represent our country. The main issue of concern is the Union Jack in the top left hand corner of our flag. Many people believe (myself included) that Australia is an independent country and therefore has no need for an ensign of another country's flag (the United Kingdom's) on our flag. I do like our present flag and am proud of the sacrifices and achievements made under the Australian flag, but I believe it is a new millennium and time for a change.

 

[GoEagles]

I like the flag the way it already is.

All the other 'alternative' designs that get printed in the paper every few years look really dodgy.

 

[sussudio]

we should use the aboriginal flag. that would have been the original flag had the british not invaded australia.

 

[Mr Eagle]

Originally posted by kaz68
I think "YES" still out-voted "NO" which was why Victoria was reported as a "YES" win.

The informal vote was the difference between the percentages.

NO outpolled YES by 10,000 votes in Victoria, and there were 28,000 informals. I think there was a few Vic senior newspaper editors who decided not to let facts get in the way of a good story

There have been some really good alternative flag designs popped out over the years, but also some horribly deformed ones. http://www.ausflag.com.au/ is utterly loaded with designs from both categories.

For my money, these ones are very cool...

 

[TheMase]

Originally posted by aggels
It was definitely stated at the time that Vic was the yes state.

The problem with that referendum was that it was only for one particular model of a republic, and one that not many people agreed with, giving more power to the type of politicians that don't know quite what to do with it all. What they should have done was put a referendum on who wants to do away with the british monarchy ruling Australia, and then discussing what type. I'm sure if they'd done it that way there would have been an overwhelming vote in favour of a republic.

The government knew this would happen. That is why they did it the way they did.
So that the republicans would devide, ones that want a republic in any case, and one who want a different type of republic to the ones on offer.

Therefore .. those republicans + the monachists make up enough people to make the referendum a no vote.

 

[TheMase]

Originally posted by Mr Eagle

NO outpolled YES by 10,000 votes in Victoria, and there were 28,000 informals. I think there was a few Vic senior newspaper editors who decided not to let facts get in the way of a good story

There have been some really good alternative flag designs popped out over the years, but also some horribly deformed ones. http://www.ausflag.com.au/ is utterly loaded with designs from both categories.

For my money, these ones are very cool...

We could take up the Eureka flag