Caleb Bond: The Greens’ pathetic flag stunt is virtue-signalling race-baiting at its worst

Adam Bandt’s petulant snub of the Australian flag shows the Greens are more interested in dividing our nation than solving real Indigenous problems, argues Caleb Bond.

If ever you needed proof that virtue-signalling race-baiters are more interested in dividing than healing, then Adam Bandt has delivered.

Refusing to stand in front of the Australian flag – the flag of the country he is elected to represent – is pointless and childish.

The Greens leader has apparently been doing this since 2020. But, on Monday, he decided to make a real point of it by having one of his staff move the Australian flag to the side of the room in front of the press pack.

It was a deliberate and pointed action designed purely to sow division.

A staffer for Greens leader Adam Bandt moved the Australian flag from behind his podium on Monday but left the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in place.

Shunting the national flag shows that Mr Bandt is less interested in fostering a cohesive Australia than he is creating headlines and stoking racial divisions that need not exist.

It does nothing to better the life of any Indigenous person.

The whole idea of reconciliation is – would you believe it – to reconcile our differences. Settle our disputes. Make Indigenous and all other Australians one.

It is a noble aim to which we should all strive. And it is achieved by bringing everybody together – not by denigrating the flag that represents this country.

As Carol Martin, the first Indigenous woman elected to an Australian parliament, said: “We are having a discussion now about a voice and the Statement from the Heart, and if you want to bring people on board why would you kick them in the goolies?”

Offending people simply entrenches their views. But Mr Bandt knows this. One wonders whether it is his aim.

Mr Bandt has no problem posing in front of the Aboriginal flag.

His flag stunt generated enormous controversy on morning TV and talkback radio today.

Division gives him something to complain about and a reason to beat his chest. It gives him a reason to complain about the dastardly conservatives so he can appeal to his idealistic, bleeding heart, do-nothing inner-city voters.

If he fixed the things he complains about, he’d be redundant.

There’s a reason many of the people who carry on ad nauseam about Australia Day and the flag never say boo about the fact Aboriginal women are more than 30 times more likely to be hospitalised with domestic violence related injuries than anyone else in this country. They’re not interested in difficult issues and real solutions – it’s about optics.

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But it’s not just conservatives Mr Bandt has offended. It’s basically the entire country.

The flag Mr Bandt refuses to stand in front of is the flag Aboriginal Australians fought under during the world wars. It is the flag that has been a symbol of hope and pride for so many migrants who came here to start a better life.

Division is an industry for people like Mr Bandt.

His mindlessness stands in the way of reconciliation rather than promoting it.