Flag of Australia
[6] Ivor Evans, one of the flag's designers, intended the Southern Cross to also refer to the four moral virtues ascribed to the four main stars by Dante: justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude.[11] The Australian Government's Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers also gives CMYK and RGB specifications for depicting the flag in print and on screen respectively.The Prime Minister, John Howard, rejected the calls, stating that "in the end I guess it's part of the sort of free speech code that we have in this country".[35] The Union Jack, as the flag of the British Empire, was first used on Australian soil on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay.[42] This flag was only briefly in usage, as two years after the formation of the Anti-Transportation League in 1851, the colonial authorities decided to stop the intake of convicts, so the ATL ceased its activities.[50] The judging criteria for the designs included historical relevance, compliance with the conventions of heraldry, originality, utility, and the cost of manufacture.[49][48] The entries were put on display at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne and the judges took six days to deliberate before reaching their conclusion.Readers of The Age newspaper were told that,[53] a huge "Blue Ensign," with the prize design of the Southern Cross and a six pointed star thereon, was run up to the top of the flagstaff on the dome, and breaking, streamed out on the heavy south-westerly breeze a brave and inspiriting picture.The report carried by the Argus newspaper was also celebratory in nature, stating,[47] In years to come the flag which floated yesterday in the Exhibition building over Her Excellency the Countess of Hopetoun, who stood for Great Britain, and the Prime Minister (Mr Barton), who stood for Australia, will, in all human probability, become the emblem upon which the millions of the free people of the Commonwealth will gaze with a thrill of national pride.Alternatively, the then republican magazine The Bulletin labelled it,[54] a staled réchauffé of the British flag, with no artistic virtue, no national significance ...[57] The Barton government regarded both the Blue and Red Ensigns as colonial maritime flags[58] and "grudgingly" agreed to fly it only on naval ships.Later governments, that of Chris Watson in 1904 and Andrew Fisher in 1910, were also unhappy with the design, wanting something "more distinctive" and more "indicative of Australian unity".Prime minister Edmund Barton announced in the Commonwealth Gazette that King Edward VII had officially approved the design as the flag of Australia on 11 February 1903.This was largely due to the Commonwealth government, assisted by flag suppliers, discouraging the use of the blue ensign by the general public.[62] A colourised version of a photograph held by the Australian War Memorial of the Armistice Day celebrations in Sydney's Martin Place, 11 November 1918, reveals both ensigns being displayed by the assembled crowd.[63][64] Illustrations and photos of the opening of Australia's provisional Parliament House in 1927 show Australian Ensigns flown alongside Union Jacks.that this choice was made on the basis that the predominately red version carried too many communist overtones for the government of the day to be legislated for as the chief national symbol.Blue suited the anti-communist policy of the Menzies government (and other organisations such as the Catholic Church), however it was also suitable to the Labor party as it was the same colour as the Eureka Flag.[72] As a result of the declaration of 3 September as Merchant Navy Day in 2008, the Red Ensign can be flown on land alongside the Australian national flag on this occasion as a matter of protocol.In the same year, due to lobbying by Richard Crouch MP, it had the same status as the Union Jack in the UK, when the Australian House of Representatives proclaimed that the Blue Ensign "should be flown upon all forts, vessels, saluting places and public buildings of the Commonwealth upon all occasions when flags are used".[74] The government agreed to fly the Blue Ensign on special flag days, but not if it meant additional expense, which undermined the motion.Initially the Department of Defence resisted using the Flag, considering it to be a marine ensign and favouring King's Regulations that specified the use of the Union Jack.[76][77] The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was promulgated on 5 October 1911 and was directed to fly the British White Ensign on the stern and the flag of Australia on the jackstaff.It was flown at the 1907 State Premiers conference in Melbourne and during the 1927 visit to Australia of the Duke and Duchess of York, the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.[7][84] On 4 December 1950, the Prime minister Robert Menzies affirmed the Blue ensign as the National flag and in 1951 King George VI approved the government's recommendation.[5][86] This status was formalised on 14 February 1954, when Queen Elizabeth II gave royal assent to the Flags Act 1953, which had been passed two months earlier.[92] By the mid-1980s, the Commonwealth Government no longer reminded Australians they had the right to fly the Union Jack alongside the National Flag or provided illustrations of how to correctly display them together.[94] Mild but persistent debates over the status of the flag (and especially the presence of the Union Jack in the canton) came to head during the Australian bicentenary in 1988 and during the prime ministership of Paul Keating.[120] While mainly seen as a gesture of reconciliation, this recognition caused a small amount of controversy at the time, with then opposition leader John Howard describing it as divisive.[133] On Australia Day in 2018, Ausflag released an alternative design of the flag without the Union Jack, featuring a Commonwealth Star and Southern Cross.The date of the release was met with some backlash, which Harold Scruby, Ausflag's executive director called "the lowest form of censorship".Following the release, Malcolm Turnbull, then-prime minister and a former Ausflag director, told the group that the flag would never change, viewing it as an important symbol of Australian history.
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