Polls show Aussies still love their Union Jack

Tony Hughes is Ray Martin's nightmare: a republican firmly in favour of dumping the Queen, but not the symbol of her power that sits at the top left of the Australian flag.

Martin, the millionaire television journalist and presenter whose face is among the most recognisable in the country, reopened the debate over changing the flag on Australia Day, waving an almost identical set of reasons as those now being flown by New Zealanders who believe it is time to get rid of the Union Jack.

But Martin and other advocates of change in Australia have a huge job ahead of them.

Twenty years of opinion polling and the backlash every time a new flag is proposed show a deeply entrenched resistance to replacing the 109-year-old national standard.

Mr Hughes, a 40-year-old tree-lopper from southern New South Wales is typical of many of Martin's opponents.

"I don't have an issue with getting rid of the Queen because I think she doesn't do much for us anyway," he said. "We're not Poms. We've got our own identity.

"However, the flag is a different story. It's what my grandfather fought under and if it's good enough for him to fight for our country under, it's good enough for me to be proud of.

"As far as I'm concerned, if it gets changed then I'm not an Australian any more."

Advocates of change feel entirely the opposite. They argue that the present flag represents a colonial past that does not identify Australia as a unique, independent, vibrant young nation.

"I object to having the British flag on the corner of our flag," Martin told the Herald-Sun newspaper.

"We have well and truly reached the point where we should have our own flag. I think we have to grow up and move on to another stage."

Martin is a director of Ausflag, an organisation set up almost 30 years ago to push for a new national flag and whose board includes such other prominent Australians as Olympian Cathy Freeman, broadcaster and writer Phillip Adams, author and former Wallaby Peter Fitzsimons, and businesswoman Janet Holmes a'Court.

Ausflag, which has advised New Zealanders pushing for their own change, wants a standard that "clearly and unequivocally proclaims our identity to other nations, a flag which is internationally recognisable and not confusing to other nations".

The main confusion is with the New Zealand flag, sometimes with great embarrassment.

The Australian Monarchist League used the New Zealand flag in a pamphlet opposing the 1999 republic referendum; more recently, the Australian Financial Review described troops pictured marching with the New Zealand standard as Australian Diggers.

Advocates of change also want a new flag to shed the symbolism of a white, imperial past to embrace indigenous Australia and the nation's modern diversity.

Greg Barns, a former adviser to state and federal politicians, wrote in the internet forum On-Line Opinion: "Designing a new flag provides an opportunity to ensure that Australia tells the world and its own people that the history of this country did not begin with the hoisting of a Union Jack in the 18th century, but that the indigenous owners ... represent a link between the ancient and the modern."

But opinion polls have consistently shown that Australians want to keep their flag.

Morgan polls during the 1990s, when the republican push was at its strongest, showed the majority of Australians opposed removing the Union Jack and were in favour of keeping the existing flag.

A series of Newspolls in the 1990s put support for the present flag at between 53 per cent and 59 per cent.

And in 1998 the Government passed a law requiring a referendum before the flag could be changed.

Three polls taken in the heat of Australia Day's renewed debate suggest the nation still needs convincing.

A Galaxy poll in Sydney's Daily Telegraph suggested only 27 per cent of Australians wanted to remove the Union Jack, and 45 per cent wanted to keep the present flag

An internet poll on the ABC site The Pump suggested 57 per cent opposed change, and another on news.com.au put opposition to a new flag at 62.8 per cent.

Australian Monarchist League president Phillip Benwall said Australians, especially the young, would continue to support the flag.

"It's become a symbol of nationalism and patriotism among the younger generations and I don't think they would tolerate any change," he said.

"The Union Jack [on the flag] symbolises the identity, the traditions and the heritage of modern Australia. We've moved on, we're now totally independent from the United Kingdom, but it's still our heritage. You can't get away from that."

National Flag Association president Bert Lane said the flag had served Australia well in war and peace and Australians "recognise it for what it is: the flag of freedom".

And he had no problems about transtasman confusion.

"Four little red stars on the New Zealand flag, six great big, white, bright stars on the Australian. People who can't see the difference would have to be bloody blind or drunk."