STATEMENT: The Member for Western Victoria Region, Bev McArthur, has backed a motion calling on the Allan Labor government to criminalise the deliberate desecration of the Australian and Victorian flags.
In a Parliamentary debate last week, Mrs McArthur argued:
‘The Australian national flag and the Victorian state flag are enduring symbols of our nation and our state … they represent our history, recall our shared values and symbolise our unity.’
She went on to condemn public flag burning as more than mere protest.
‘It is not a harmless act of protest but a threatening act of aggression, a symbolic call to violence against Australia, its institutions and its people.’
Citing IPA research on community sentiment, Mrs McArthur noted:
- 77 per cent of Australians polled believe burning the Australian national flag should be against the law
- 63 per cent believe offenders should face jail time
- 71 per cent believe non-citizens who burn the flag should be deported
‘Free speech is sacrosanct… but society should only restrict liberty to prevent harm to others, and flag desecration causes tangible injury. It harms social cohesion, provokes violence and signals aggression against fellow citizens. We do not ban ideas, but we can and must curb acts that symbolically attack the polity itself.’
Mrs McArthur called for a measured legislative response.
‘Laws should be carefully crafted, targeting deliberate desecration done with intent to incite hatred or public disorder, balancing deterrence with proportionality. We must distinguish between sincere, even passionate, political speech and acts whose primary purpose is to wound the nation and divide its people.’
‘The Australian flag is a symbol of our unity, democracy and hard-won freedoms,’ Mrs McArthur concluded. ‘To treat it with such contempt is to treat the Australian people with contempt.’
She urged the government to act on the motion and ‘recommit Victoria to the shared values our flags proudly represent.’
