The Greens are showing where their true allegiance lies – and it’s not Australia. Indeed, the very sight of the Australian flag – on, of all days, Australian National Flag Day – is enough to trigger them into a rage of denunciation.
Liberal Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was ordered in the Senate chamber to remove an Australian flag that was wrapped around her shoulders, in the middle of a speech calling for the burning of the national ensign to be criminalised.
Enter the Undertaker.
Her push for the burning of the Australian flag to become a criminal offence was interrupted on Wednesday when Greens senator Nick McKim raised a point of order that Senator Price was using a prop as part of her address.
Which is odd, considering McKim said nothing when Greens MPs wore their dinky little terror tea towels in the Senate.
In fact, McKim made clear that he’d be happy to wear a flag in the Senate: the flag of anti-Semitic terrorists.
“I do want to make the point that if it’s OK 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.
Why doesn’t that surprise me? After all, Greens politicians point-blank refused to condemn ‘pro-Palestinian’ activists who publicly burned the Australian flag.
The incident took place amid mounting pressure to criminalise the burning or destruction of the national flag, with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson moving a motion that a criminal offence be created […]
“Shamefully, there are people who know what the flag means to so many Australians, and that’s why they despise it,” Senator Hanson said.
“They despise our people and our nation for their stupid, narrow, hateful causes and for the symbolic value of our flag.”
Vietnamese-Australian MP Dai Le is in no doubt about what the flag represents – and why she wore a flag-themed dress in parliament for her maiden speech. Le stated that it represents the country that “welcomed her as a refugee… a multicultural Australia that embraces people who have come here looking for hope, freedom and opportunities”.
Price echoed Le’s sentiments.
Senator Price said the flag represented the nation’s history and symbolised “gratitude” for the good fortune to live in Australia. “Our national flag reminds us of the duty of responsible citizenship, doing something that’s bigger than ourselves,” she said.
“For example, raising a family, contributing to one’s community, working hard in a chosen field, or serving the nation in some capacity.
“When one understands the history behind our national flag, when one values its symbolic weight, it’s beyond comprehension that the burning of our national flag is not a criminal offence.”
If there’s one thing we know about Price, though, it’s that she doesn’t back down easily. Nor does Pauline Hanson.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson later donned an Australian flag in the Senate as well, before she too was told to remove it.
“It is not a prop. The Australian flag flies in our chamber,” an angry Ms Hanson said before reluctantly removing it from her shoulders […]
Ms Price took a strong stance on the matter, posing with the flags outside of parliament, refusing to back down from the criticism thrown her way.
“After yesterday’s events, I think it’s clear that we need to take a stronger stand in respecting our country, taking pride in our country as a nation,” she said.
“To suggest to myself, as an indigenous woman, a senator, who is proud to call myself an Australian, proud of our country, attempting to try to instil pride in who we are as a country, because I believe we’ve truly come under attack, particularly by the left, in suggesting that somehow there’s something wrong with us if we are proud to be Australian.”
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie also took issues with McKim’s hissy-fit, reminding that, far from a ‘prop’, the flag “sits in our chamber right now”.
Which probably upsets the Greens almost as much as indigenous and Asian Australians proudly emblazoning themselves with it.
