Greens leader Adam Bandt slammed after hiding Australian flag before press conference

Greens leader Adam Bandt has been accused of “virtue signalling” after refusing to speak next to the Australian flag.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has been slammed after refusing to speak next to the Australian flag at a press conference in what has been described as a “virtue signalling” stunt.

A member of his staff could be seen moving the flag from the behind the podium before Mr Bandt began speaking at Sydney’s Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices on Monday.

Only the Aboriginal flag and Torres Strait Island flag could be seen behind him as he spoke to the cameras.

Mr Bandt said he removed the flag because it “represents lingering pain” for some Australians, and used the opportunity to promote his view that Australia should become a republic with an updated flag.

“For many Australians, this flag represents dispossession and the lingering pains of colonisation,” Mr Bandt said.

“Through Treaty with First Nations’ Peoples and by moving to a Republic, we can have a flag that represents all of us.”

@Isobel Roe tweeted: Ahead of a press conference with Greens leader Adam Bandt, a Greens staffer has just moved the Australian flag out of the TV camera shot.

But Mr Bandt’s stunt sparked serious backlash, with Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten telling Today it was a divisive act.

“Antics like this, this virtue signalling saying, ‘I love First Nations People more than anyone else’ … it turns more people off than turns them on,” he said.

2GB’s Jim Wilson from 2GB also told Today it was “highly offensive” and “insulting”.

“We had a Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide resume in Townsville yesterday – men and women who fought under the Australian flag. On the same day, you have this peanut who goes on and removes the Australian flag,” he said.

“I find it deeply offensive and not the Australia we want to embrace.

“Have all three flags, but don’t remove the national flag.”

The Greens politician primarily used the press conference to talk about Labor’s approach to emissions, following his comments on renewable energy amid last week’s power crisis.

“Labor is bringing a weak target to parliament that means the end of the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

“Labor is now an obstacle to greater climate action and they are refusing to listen to the will of the people who have just delivered a big mandate for climate mandates at the election.”

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine weighed in on Bandt’s flag gesture shortly after, questioning if the act was appropriate for federal parliament and whether the Greens “actually hate Australians”.

“It’s idiotic,” Mundine said. “Are the Greens actually in the Australian federal parliament? Seriously? Do they actually hate Australians that much? Aboriginals call themselves Australians all the time.

“The Greens are just a fringe university type group trying to run down the country.”

Dr Bella d’Abrera, Director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program at the Institute of Public Affairs, said Bandt’s assumption was “completely out of touch with real Australians who are proud of their country, and proud of their history”.

“As an elected member of the Commonwealth parliament, Adam Bandt has shown he is unfit to be a member of parliament when he demonstrates contempt for one of Australia’s most unifying symbols,” she said via The Daily Telegraph.

“This is exactly the type of empty virtue signalling we have come to expect from the Greens Party.”

‘For many Australians, this flag represents dispossession and the lingering pains of colonisation,’ Mr Bandt said.

“If the Greens are not proud of our Commonwealth they should not be using taxpayer funded Commonwealth offices for their press conferences,” Nationals Senator Matt Canavan said.

Mr Bandt made headlines last week after declaring Australia’s ongoing energy crisis is a failure of privatisation, claiming the government “wrote the rules to suit big corporations”.

“Governments wrote the rules to suit big corporations, not you,” he tweeted on Thursday, suggesting big changes must be made as the nation slowly transitions to renewable energy.

The Greens have remained adamant against Australia ramping up coal usage or opening up more gas to deal with burgeoning power issues.

“Electricity is an essential service, and as we shift to 100 per cent renewables & support people, it‘s time to talk about how we get power in public hands again,” Bandt said.