If anyone is in doubt about the importance of what is on flags, they should be paying attention to the debate in the United States over the Confederate flag after a racially motivated massacre on 17 June (see link below for historical background and details of increasing trends to remove traces of the Confederate flag from state legislatures and merchandise following a strong public reaction including from the US Head of State). The woman who scaled a flagpole and removed the Confederate flag flown outside the South Carolina State House is Brittany Newsome. Other flags are also flown outside this State House; only Mississippi has the Confederate flag on its state flag in the top left-hand corner. PM Abbott may well want to reflect on his habit of appearing in front of an ever-increasing number of Australian flags with a prominent Union Jack.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
