Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown’s refusal to fly Australian flag a ‘pure snub’, war heroes claim

Brisbane Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown’s repudiation of the Australian flag has been slammed as a “pure snub” by a group of retired soldiers. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown. Picture Lachie Millard

Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown has been rebuked by Victoria Cross winner Daniel Keighran and three other war heroes for refusing to fly the Australian flag in her office, and for her support for Palestine.

In their letter the retired soldiers also asked Watson-Brown to condemn the graffiti attack on the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. She declined.

But it was Watson-Brown’s repudiation of the flag that seemed to anger the group the most.

“Unfortunately for many Australians, including many Indigenous Australians, the Union Jack-adorned flag represents untold suffering, dispossession, and the lingering pains of colonization,” Watson-Brown, the Member for Ryan, said in her reply.

Former Army sniper Ryan Shaw, spokesman for the group, told me:
“It was a pure snub to anyone who has served.

“The Australian national flag was the symbol we draped over the coffin of our friends killed in Afghanistan.

“Yet it seems a meaningless symbol to her.”

Ryan Shaw a former Army sniper, now an advocate for veterans looking to study. Photo Steve Pohlner

Shaw spoke more poignantly when he said the flag “protected the fallen on their journey home to Australia”. Shaw served for 14 years in the defence force, with deployments in Afghanistan and Timor. He is now an advocate for retired soldiers.

Shaw said he was also appalled when Watson-Brown set up a tent emblazoned with her name at a pro-Palestine rally at the University of Queensland where there were open calls for an Intifada against Israel.

Jewish leaders said the rallies at several universities in Australia helped embolden anti-Semitic terrorists to attack Jewish homes and synagogues.

The Courier-Mail earlier reported Watson-Brown saying the protest at the University of Queensland was “entirely reasonable”.

Shaw said Watson-Brown was unwise to get involved.

In their letter to Watson-Brown, veterans John Hardgrave, Jamie Whitehead and Dylan Conway joined Shaw and Keighran in calling on her to reconsider her stance. They reminded her that her seat of Ryan took in the Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera where 7000 troops are stationed. Moreover, the Ryan electorate contains thousands of retired servicemen and women.

Watson-Brown was not available for an interview.

Image of Elizabeth watson Brown tent at UQ

However, in her letter she admitted she had “differences of opinion” with the old soldiers.

She added: “Fundamentally, I don’t think graffiti and vandalism do anything to further the cause of peace and I certainly don’t support them as protest actions.

“The reason the Greens voted against this particular motion is because it also contained a broader condemnation of people protesting against Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which of course we don’t agree with.

“However, that does not mean we condone the actions at the war memorial.”

Watson-Brown also declared her support for a new flag.

“I was elected by the people of Ryan on my policies and platform and that includes reckoning with the history of Australia and its harm caused to First Nations people,” she said.

“The Australian Greens are committed to working for truth-telling about Australia’s colonial history, a Treaty with First Nations peoples, and a Republic.

“This work will bring Australia together and ensure we can have a flag that represents all of us.”

Queensland senators James McGrath and Paul Scarr condemned Watson-Brown in Parliament for her anti-flag stance.

A secretary in Watson-Brown’s electoral office at Taringa declined to say whether the Australian flag was still banned from the office.