City of Sydney staff confiscate council’s own ‘problematic’ flag from Liberal councillor
Premier Chris Minns has labelled the Clover Moore-led City of Sydney Council’s confiscation of its own flag from a councillor’s office as a “massive overreach”, suggesting there were bigger issues to prioritise.
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Confiscating an official City of Sydney flag from a Liberal councillor’s office was a “massive over-reaction” from staff in Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s Council, Premier Chris Minns said.
Mr Minns declared actions of council staff in seizing Sydney’s flag from Cr Lyndon Gannon’s office – revealed in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday – were “outrageous”.
Staff took the flag from Mr Gannon’s office, while it was unattended, after spotting the ensign during a Zoom meeting.
“If the Government came into my office while I was in opposition and took a flag down I’d be pretty angry,” Mr Minns said.
The Premier said Ms Moore and her council should have better priorities than banning the City’s official flag because it does not contain any acknowledgment of Indigenous Australians.
“It seems like a massive over-reaction and there are other things to be focused on at the moment,” he said.
The Telegraph revealed on Tuesday that the City’s flag will be subject to a council review, to ensure that they accurately reflect the City’s aspirations and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage”.
The review will “look at international and local examples of truth-telling projects in heritage buildings” as part of changing Sydney’s coat of arms, chains of office, and official flag.
On Monday, The Daily Telegraph revealed staff at Clover Moore’s City of Sydney confiscated Sydney’s flag from a Liberal councillor’s office after the council banned the ensign because it “contains no acknowledgment of First Nations people”.
The council is now commissioning a review of the City’s flag and other symbols, 18 months after the Lord Mayor declared the emblems were “at the very least, problematic”.
The symbols include a coat of arms adopted in 1996, and the flag designed in 1908.
Ms Moore first called for a review into Sydney’s emblems and symbols in August 2022, in a motion which was adopted by council.
The Daily Telegraph can now reveal that council staff seized the city’s flag from Liberal councillor Lyndon Gannon, after it was spotted in his office during a Zoom meeting last month.
“A few days later, I got a call from the Council’s CEO stating that because the council was doing a review of the flag, the staff were going to collect it,” Mr Gannon said.
He said council staff went into office while it was unattended and took the flag into storage.
Ms Moore first called for the city’s symbols and emblems to be reviewed in a Mayoral Minute of August 2022.
Ms Moore said the city’s symbols – a Coat of Arms, the Chains of Office, and the City Flag “are, at the very least, problematic”.
That review is still yet to begin.
The former Coat of Arms depicted an indigenous man and a British settler on either side of a three-mast ship, above the words: “I take but I surrender”.
The original Coat of Arms was replaced in 1996, by one featuring a stylised Rainbow Serpent and a coiled rope to represent Sydney’s maritime heritage.
The flag, adopted in 1908, features a ship under sail, as a reference to Sydney as a maritime port. It also features three designs in the top third: the arms of Thomas Townshend, Viscount Sydney, the English Naval Flag (overlaid with symbols of James Cook), and the arms of Sydney’s first Lord Mayor Thomas Hughes.
“We are in the process of commissioning a review of emblems and symbols in the Sydney Town Hall, to ensure that they accurately reflect the City’s aspirations and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage,” a council spokeswoman said.
“The City of Sydney flag is based on the City’s former Coat of Arms and contains no acknowledgment of First Nations people. As such, it is no longer flown. The City of Sydney flies the Australian flag, Aboriginal flag and Torres Strait Islander flag over Town Hall.”
She said that staff took the flag “for safe storage in the City’s civic collection”.
Mr Gannon said confiscating his flag was “unnecessary”.
“Rather than unifying us as the most successful multicultural country on earth, we are sending a message that we are ashamed of ourselves,” he said.
“To send a message that we are ashamed of who we are before even completing a review is very disappointing,” he said.
“While Australia does have some dark chapters, simply changing the flag isn’t going to fix any of that.”
Flag expert John Vaughan yesterday criticised the council for attempting to change the city’s flag, which he said “commemorates the modern city of Sydney”.
He said the flag was still an “appropriate” ensign for the city. He said calls for a review were based on the views of the “minority”.
Independent City of Sydney councillor Yvonne Weldon, Sydney’s first indigenous councillor, supported the council’s review into its symbols.
“The flag bears about as much relevance to our city community as Ferry McFerryface,” she said.
“By reassessing established narratives, mistruths, and one-dimensional accounts of past events, all Australians gain a richer understanding of our shared history and story,” Ms Weldon said.
The City of Sydney is also set to review how statues of colonial figures are presented, after supported a motion from Ms Weldon calling for “additional context” to be added to historical statues.
Mr Gannon supported that motion.
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