Patrick Carlyon: Bandt’s flag idiocy is the Australian equivalent of an American flag burner

Greens MP Adam Bandt is giving a middle finger to all the Australians who protect his right to free speech – and who also pay his parliamentary wage.

The options seem pretty limited for Greens MP, and chronic man-child, Adam Bandt.

The poor bloke can longer do his job. He can no longer attend his workplace. He cannot go to functions. He cannot visit schools.

In rejecting the Australian flag, as he did at a Monday press conference, he rejected every place where an Australian flag flies.

Given the flag stands above the federal parliament, Bandt appears to have abdicated his right to represent Australians.

Rarely has one choice so stirred national contempt.

Bandt stands accused of being “idiotic” and “insulting”. He’s been called a “peanut”.

Indigenous leaders point out that Bandt’s gesture stands to divide rather than unite in their fight for a stronger voice.

An Australian flag was moved to the side of the room prior to Greens leader Adam Bandt conducting a press conference where he did not want to have the Australian flag and what it symbolises in the camera frame as he spoke.

They are the victims here. They have been confronted with a noisy do-gooder who muddles a mostly sophisticated and united cause. Bandt has confused his passion for an ideal as being grander than the ideal itself.

In May, the ALP’s Member for Lingiari, Tiwi woman Marion Scrymgour, identified the hard left as the biggest obstacle to Indigenous constitutional recognition.

“While they say they are friends of Indigenous people, they’re not really because they just want to run their outrageous agendas all the time,” she said.

Bandt seems to mistake the fundamentals of his job. For him, the art of winning hearts and minds, as politics ought to be, is instead a series of stunts and pronouncements.

He prefers stridency over conciliation, as though the shock of his zeal trumps the reasons behind it.

Adam Bandt in front of The Australian Aboriginal flag

He has now dissed everyone who has fought under the flag, or sung the national anthem, because they seek to celebrate a nation which thrives as the most kindly model of modern democracy.

Of course we can debate the flag. For decades, prominent people have spoken of shedding the Union Jack as a show of independence.

Yet they have not demanded, on our behalf, and against our will, that the current flag be renounced until a new flag is arrived at.

So what can Bandt do? Under his argument, he cannot go to work and avoid the charge of gross hypocrisy.

He is the Australian equivalent of an American flag burner.

The only solution is for Bandt to be pictured with an Australian flag.

Until he does, he will be giving a middle finger to all the Australians who protect his right to free speech – and who also pay his parliamentary wage.

And until he does, he deserves the middle finger in return.