Page 811 - Week 03 - Thursday, 25 March 1993
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MR HUMPHRIES (11.51): Madam Speaker, speaking independently, as I agreed to do by leave of the leader, I must indicate that I will support this motion, but without much of the enthusiasm which perhaps would be appropriate for a step as auspicious as the creation of our territorial symbol with the adoption of a new flag.
Mr Kaine: We can change it 100 years from now.
MR HUMPHRIES: We could change it 100 years from now, but I probably will not be around, Madam Speaker, when that happens. Madam Speaker, I support the concept of a flag. I think it is appropriate that the ACT have an identifiable flag for our new self-governing status and that we have something that over time people will grow to recognise and identify solely with the ACT.
As to whether the flag that is to be adopted by this motion is that flag, I do not pass judgment. I suppose that over time people will associate with any symbol, providing it is used often enough; but the point is that we do need a symbol of this kind. It is important for our purposes of identifying ourselves as a political entity which deserves some separate and recognisable status. I have been to ministerial meetings, as have others in this chamber, where I have sat behind an Australian flag, or no flag at all, or a flag of the city, simply a rather ghastly coloured flag of the city of Canberra, and in all cases it has been galling not to have a symbol which we can stand up and say is our own.
It does not surprise me that Mr Kaine is very supportive of the present design. I think I am speaking the truth in saying that he is the only person in this Assembly who is supportive of that design. I went to see Mr Kaine the other day and I saw him with a great stack of coloured papers on his desk, ticking them one by one as he was talking to me. I did not know what he was doing. It occurred to me that this motion today is a very good exercise in democracy because here we have a process which has been embarked upon and which has produced a particular result. It is a result which I think very few of us in this chamber - probably only one of us - actually support, but which we are about to adopt and support, notwithstanding our own personal feelings, because we acknowledge and recognise the process which has led to it happening.
I took part in that process from the outset. I was disturbed to see that, according to Capital Television news, I think, 47 per cent of their telephone correspondents did not like any of the designs. That was a disturbing trend, but I think it is true to say that over time this symbol will grow to be associated with the aspirations and the direction of the city of Canberra. It will become a symbol which we will all grow accustomed to and will welcome when we go places, as representing the things that we stand for. Canberra is a very special place. We all, I believe, want ways of signifying that, and perhaps our flag will be one small device we can use to further that aim. So, as I say, I support this motion. Perhaps in 100 years' time we can come back and look at the question again, but for the next 100 years this will be a pretty good flag.
MS SZUTY (11.55): I too support the motion that Ms Follett has proposed and I join with Mr Humphries in expressing his sentiments on this particular flag. I do not embrace it enthusiastically either, but the decision was made on the basis of a process that we all participated in and I guess that we need to follow that through to its logical conclusion, which is the motion we have before us today.
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