Greens leader Adam Bandt refuses to stand with Australian flag
The Greens leader’s refusal to stand in front of the Australian flag has been labelled as ‘childish virtue-signalling’ by Indigenous community leaders.
Adam Bandt’s refusal to stand in front of the Australian flag as Greens leader has been labelled divisive and “childish virtue-signalling” by Indigenous community leaders, who say it is contrary to the spirit of reconciliation.
Political opponents of Mr Bandt also questioned why Greens MPs would want to represent Australians in the federal parliament if they were ashamed of their own country.
It comes as the NSW government on Sunday announced that, by the end of the year, the Aboriginal flag would permanently fly alongside the Australian flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Mr Bandt’s practice since becoming Greens leader in 2020 has been to remove the Australian flag from behind him when conducting press conferences.
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. #auspolpic.twitter.com/g524GbpKKH
— Isobel Roe (@isobelroe) June 20, 2022
A member of his team removed the flag ahead of his press conference in Sydney on Monday, while the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags remained in view. Mr Bandt said the flag was “hurtful” to Indigenous Australians and invoked racism.
“For many people, this flag represents dispossession and the lingering pains of colonisation,” he said. “Through treaty with First Nations’ people and by moving to a republic, we can have a flag that represents all of us.”
Carol Martin, the first Indigenous woman to be elected to any Australian parliament, said Mr Bandt’s decision to remove the Australian flag could cause division at a time when unity was needed to help deliver an Indigenous voice to parliament.
“The question is, what is it going to achieve?” the former Labor member of the WA Legislative Assembly said. “We are having a discussion now about a voice and the Statement from the Heart, and if you want to bring people on board why would you kick them in the goolies?
“It doesn’t work.
“If you want to move forward, the way to do that isn’t to offend the majority.”
Ian Trust, an Indigenous elder who runs employment programs in the Kimberley town of Kununurra and is a longtime advocate for Indigenous children, said Mr Bandt’s decision went against the spirit of reconciliation that was central to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.
“Having the three flags together is all part of the reconciliation and that’s what we are trying to achieve here,” he said.
“You don’t achieve reconciliation by removing one of those flags. That goes against the grain of everything it’s about.”
He described Mr Bandt’s move as “shortsighted”. “Personally, if I was an Australian -politician, even though I recognise the Aboriginal flag, I would have the Australian flag there as well. That’s part of the country you’re in,” he said.
Hannah McGlade, a lawyer and lifelong advocate for the human rights of Aboriginal women and children and an expert adviser to the UN on the rights of Indigenous peoples, slammed the move. “I went to law school with Adam Bandt, who never showed an interest in Aboriginal issues,” she said.
what a disgrace https://t.co/OSGAIqneDE
— Proud Aussie Matt Canavan (@mattjcan) June 20, 2022
“I was also a Noongar activist supporting elders protecting our heritage sites, and racism and racist violence – he never spoke once to me about our fight for justice.
“Adam Bandt doesn’t have any track record on Aboriginal rights in my state, and his comments about the flag reflect symbolism which is rejected by Aboriginal people because we know it’s actually rights we want.”
At his first press conference as Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese displayed all three flags.
Northern Territory senator-elect for the Country Liberal Party Jacinta Price said the removal of the flag was “very disrespectful to all Australians.”
“It’s becoming a little bit childish for leaders to be virtue-signalling about who loves Aboriginal people more,” she said.
“There’s a lot of Aboriginal people out there who I’m sure like myself can see right through it. Just get on with representing all Australians, that’s what we are all elected to do regardless of our backgrounds. It is racist of Bandt to continue to paint Aboriginal Australians as helpless victims in need of rescuing by the likes of privileged woke MP’s.”
Opposition legal affairs and Indigenous Australians spokesman Julian Leeser said all parliamentarians should have the nation’s flag in view. “If it is good enough for Indigenous servicemen to fight under the Australian flag, it should be good enough for our parliamentarians to respect the flag by holding their press conferences in front of it,” he said.
Indigenous leader Warren Mundine also branded Mr Bandt’s reasoning as “childish and stupid … We are all trying to bring Australia together. That’s why we put the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags together with the Australian flag, so we are seen as one nation.”
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