Page 809 - Week 03 - Thursday, 25 March 1993
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FLAG FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (11.44): Madam Speaker, I move:
That this Assembly, noting the outcome of community consultation on a flag for the ACT, adopts the design featuring the Southern Cross and a modified form of Canberra City's Coat of Arms as the official flag for the Australian Capital Territory.
Madam Speaker, this motion proposes that the Assembly note the outcome of the community consultation phase on the selection of a flag for the Australian Capital Territory and agree to declare the most popular choice as the official flag for the Territory. In June of 1992 a motion was agreed by this Assembly which in part called upon the ACT Government to take early steps to adopt a flag for the Territory. Members of the Assembly had a discussion in December 1992 which resulted in a consensus on four designs to be offered for consideration by the people of the ACT. These designs were unveiled on 19 February 1993 and forms were made widely available for two weeks after that date for the community to express its preferences.
Members will have noted that, in order to confine the overall cost of this exercise, preference forms were distributed mainly through government outlets such as shopfront offices, libraries, schools and a display at the Royal Canberra Show. Copies were available in the four major shopping centres and were delivered to private schools and retirement villages. The forms were also included in the newspaper with the highest circulation in the ACT. The total expenditure so far committed on this project is some $20,000. The ACT Electoral Office was responsible for the counting of preferences for the four designs. After those preferences were distributed the results were reported by the Electoral Office as follows: The Southern Cross and a modified form of the Canberra city coat of arms, 12,624; the Southern Cross and the Brindabella range, 10,681. Madam Speaker, I present the full report provided by the ACT Electoral Office.
As this process was a voluntary one, this provided a reasonable indication that the design featuring the modified coat of arms was acceptable to a representative sample of the ACT community. As a result, Madam Speaker, I unveiled the most popular choice at Canberra's eightieth birthday celebrations on 12 March 1993. Because of the significance of this issue, Madam Speaker, I would like this Assembly to note formally the outcome of community consultation on the selection of a flag for the ACT and to resolve that the design featuring the Southern Cross and a modified form of Canberra city's coat of arms be declared the official flag for the Territory. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.47): I will not pretend to speak for the Opposition on this matter. I think it is a matter of personal preference. That is no indication of any dissent from the Opposition; it is a matter that has not been discussed by us. The point is that the adoption of a flag for the Territory is a personal thing. You either want one or you do not, and you either like the design or you do not. So I speak for myself. Any other member of the Opposition is entirely free to speak for themselves if they have a different view.
Madam Speaker, I support this motion. I think it has long been not so much a problem but a deficiency that the ACT has not had its own emblems and symbols.
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