Burning the Australian flag will remain legal after a Coalition move to ban the practice went down in flames.
Dismissing the amendments as a stunt, the Prime Minister was among a large group of Labor MPs who voted down an amendment to hate crimes laws to ban flag burning.
Veteran and Queensland MP Philip Thomson has slammed the move by Labor as a disgrace that “deeply offends millions of Australians”.
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“The Australian flag is not a prop for protest theatre,” Mr Thomson said.
“It is worn on the shoulder of every Australian Defence Force member.
“It is carried into battle. And it is draped, with solemn respect, over the coffins of fallen soldiers.
“I, like many veterans, have buried friends and brothers beneath that flag. Families have received it as the final symbol of a nation’s gratitude. Yet Labor has decided that this symbol deserves no legal protection at all.”
Burning the Australian flag will remain legal after a Coalition move to ban the practice went down in flames. Picture: NewsWire/Glenn Campbell
Mr Thomson said that 77 per cent of Australians believe burning the flag should be illegal.
“Deliberately torching the national flag is not political expression; it is an act of contempt aimed at dividing the nation and insulting its values,” he said.
But even some Coalition MPs broke ranks insisting jail sentences for people that burn the flag was a bridge too far.
Liberal MP Alex Antic chose to walk out of the chamber during the vote. His vote wasn’t “paired” to make up for his absence.
“No matter how much I dislike people doing it, I don’t think there should be a jail term for burning a flag,” Liberal MP Alex Antic told news.com.au.
More broadly the National also split over the hate crimes legislation.
Three of the senators broke shadow cabinet solidarity and voted against their Liberal colleagues on Labor’s hate crime laws.
Coalition frontbenchers Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald crossed the floor last night after Nationals leader David Littleproud and nearly all of his party abstained from the vote.
One Nation’s Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce have long championed new laws to ban flag burning.
Mr Albanese’s name on the list of those who voted against an amendment to ban flag burning.
But asked about the idea last week, Anthony Albanese said MPs were there to vote on the substantive legislation.
“We have the legislation that’s there,” he said.
“We’ll have a process going forward. But we think the focus is very much on the aftermath of December 14th. It is on what was an anti-Semitic terrorist attack.
“On broader issues, what we intend to do is to have a process to look at other areas of hate speech. If the legislation is carried by the Parliament, that will be referred to a process going forward.”
In the wake of the amendment being moved and lost Mr Thomson questioned why Labor didn’t back the ban.
“But what Labor was not prepared to do is protect our Australian flag,” he said.
“We moved an amendment to criminalise the destruction of the Australian flag – and Labor voted against it.
“I’m sick of seeing hateful protesters burn our flag and I’ll always stand up to protect it.”
The Prime Minister said the ‘focus is very much on the aftermath’ of the Bondi terror attack. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman
Nationals leader David Littleproud and his entire party voted to abstain from the vote. Picture: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
Last year new Liberal recruit Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was forced to take off the Australian flag in Parliament after draping herself with it, when she used National Flag Day to call for new rules to ban burning it.
Greens Senator Nick McKim complained that the flag contravened the rules of Parliament.
“I do want to make the point that if it’s okay for Senator Nampijinpa Price to wrap herself in this flag, I would intend to wrap myself in a Palestinian flag and come into the chamber and exercise the same rights that Senator Nampijinpa Price is currently exercising,” he said.
The Acting President of the Senate, Slade Brockman, asked Ms Price and Ms Hanson to continue their speeches but remove the flag from their shoulders.
The move prompted a fierce reply by Price, the shadow minister for defence personnel, who referenced a traditional Middle Eastern headdress in her speech.
“It’s so disappointing from the Greens but also so typical,” she said.
“You can wear a keffiyeh in here.
“Perhaps you should remove that article from you whenever you walk through the chambers, for the benefit of all Australians in this country.”
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