Mornington Peninsula Shire to rewrite flag rules after ditching Australian flag from kinder registration promo
A community backlash over a local council’s kinder flyer has forced immediate change to the way the Australian flag is displayed on the Mornington Peninsula.
South East
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Bureaucrats at Morningtion Peninsula Shire will be stripped of control over how flags are displayed, both in print and on poles, after omitting the Australian flag from a kinder flyer that included the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pride flags.
The flyer for the council’s kindergarten program sparked community frustration on the Mornington Peninsula, with ratepayers calling for the “radical material” to be torched.
The Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pride Progress flags are prominently displayed on the kinder flyer — sent out to encourage families to enrol their children in the shire’s programs for 2026 — but the Australian flag is nowhere to be seen.
A photo of the flyer sparked furious debate on Monday as offended ratepayers slammed the move.
“Now it appears the MPSC only acknowledges the gay, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as evidenced by eliminating the Australian flag (which represents us all), from official paperwork,” one local posted to social media.
“Does that mean the rest of us are exempt from rates?
Mornington Peninsula councillors acted swiftly to the backlash on Tuesday.
Cr Bruce Ranken raised the issue as urgent business on Tuesday night, calling for the Australian flag to always be displayed at the “highest position of honour” and to be included wherever flags were used, effective immediately.
“It is our national symbol, it should always be recognised, never overlooked,” he said.
Mr Ranken also asked for the shire’s flag policy to be rewritten and then controlled by councillors.
The current policy states that if the Australian flag is flown it must take precedence but does not stipulate that it be flown whenever flags are displayed.
Councillors voted to give the shire 60 days to present a revised policy that was “clear respectful and enforceable”.
Mr Ranken said the action was “not about excluding other flags” which represented the community’s diversity, identity and pride.
“It’s about recognising … the Australian flag must sit at the top.”
Mr Ranken’s motion was supported by nine votes to one.
Cr Max Patton voted against the motion because he had not had time to study the existing flag policy and feared “unintended consequences”.
A photo of the kinder flyer sparked furious debate on Monday as offended ratepayers slammed the move.
Irene Saridis suggested that the flyers would make “great kindling for bonfires”.
Another local said the radical material was “another example of what they shouldn’t be doing with our rates”.
Sorrento Portsea Community Hub also called out the council.
“We are all represented by one flag. Only a very small percentage of people are represented by the other three,” the group posted on Facebook.
Mornington Peninsula mayor Anthony Marsh and chief executive officer Mark Stoermer were not aware of the flyer until it went viral on social media.
Mr Marsh confirmed the flyer had been produced recently by the council to promote enrolments in the 2026 kinder program for three and four year olds.
“We’re both appalled,” Mr Marsh said.
“We’re investigating and we will fix it.”
Not everyone was upset by the omission of the Australian flag on the flyer.
“All it is implying as that they are also inclusive of people from these backgrounds,” a woman posted to Facebook.
Flag furores are not new for Mornington Peninsula Shire.
The council’s Positive Ageing newsletter suffered a similar backlash after at least five editions in 2024 included the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pride flags on the front cover but omitted the Australian flag.
After receiving multiple complaints from disgruntled ratepayers the Australian flag was added to the cover of the March 2025 edition of the newsletter.
In 2023, former councillor Susan Bissinger was banned from speaking to all but the most senior council staff and ordered to retrain after questioning a decision to fly a Pride flag at council offices.
Ms Bissinger was later suspended for 31 days after suggesting she was “unjustly punished” for her opinion on the Intersex Pride Flag.
A state-government-appointed arbiter found she had engaged in misconduct and had “wrongly undermined the reputation of council and the chief executive officer”.
A statement released by the shire stated that arbiter Joel Silver found Ms Bissinger engaged in misconduct by “publicly suggesting she was being unjustly punished by the CEO for her opinion”.