Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Federation Council, located in the Murray region of New South Wales, does some fairly questionable things. For example, they celebrate Christmas! (I know.) Not only that, they actively promote Australia Day. How can that be? According to the ABC: “Australia Day is the most morally complicated day on the calendar.” They note that “the practice of celebrating ‘Australia’ has been and will continue to be mired in our failure to repair the damage we have done.” Oh yes, the damage. In a couple of short centuries, we’ve created a thriving democracy, the envy of the world. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people across the globe move here, millions more want to. Oh yes, we’re a horrible nation.
Regarding Australia Day, our other taxpayer-funded broadcaster SBS declared: “Not a date to celebrate.” We must constantly teach young Aboriginal Australians that modern Australia is a country to be loathed. That will result in a peaceful and harmonious society. So yes, we know something must be awry if this council is actively going against our publicly funded broadcasters and celebrating this great nation.
But they touched a nerve recently when they endorsed a new draft of their Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Protocols, which can be viewed online.
In Part 13, “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flags,” they write, “Council commits to exclusively fly the Australian flag within the Council Chamber during official sessions and on all flagpoles located across the Federation Council area.” They will, however, fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to acknowledge NAIDOC Week and Reconciliation Week. They also note that these protocols require the “Australian flag to be flown in a position of precedence over other flags.”
Oh, this set off a wave of anger. The ABC reported: “NSW council votes to stop flying Indigenous flags and enforce permissions for Welcome to Country.” Basically, they’ll “enforce a permission system for Welcomes to Country at public events.”
You can’t just do them, although I suspect certain activists will try.
They interview one such activist Cheree Toka, who successfully petitioned to permanently display the Aboriginal flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. She said, “It’s to honour the ancestors who lived, fought and survived here and reminds the nation of the land they stand on, to ensure Aboriginal identity is not made invisible for a second time.” There’s certainly no risk of that!
Toka continued, “Flags are not population markers at all, they are statements of recognition and respect. We don’t just disappear or become less traditional owners because our population is small, and we most definitely don’t stop belonging to our land simply because more settlers moved in. Seeing the Aboriginal flag in places of authority signals we belong here and we have a right to be heard and feel safe in the spaces that shape this country.”
Just to be clear, the Australian flag is already inclusive. It includes all Australian people, including Aboriginal activists. To say that each little group of people requires its own flag to be flown alongside the Australian national flag would just result in a fractured nation.
The ABC also interviewed Flag Society of Australia vice-president Tony Burton, who noted, “Aboriginal people were not consulted on Australia’s flag at all.” To be fair, I wasn’t personally consulted either, as I wasn’t born yet. Do I get to fly my own personal flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge?
Federation Council Mayor Cheryl Cook said Council’s goal is to “promote civic neutrality.” She said, “We work on a very neutral basis, and that one symbol provides that neutral space to look after the entire shire and many ratepayers have spoken to us across the duration of the year. The feedback that I have been getting is that there is a need to go back to a civic neutral space.”
And I think that’s fair enough. Council isn’t there to promote one group of Australians over another. It’s there to look after the parks and roads, and make sure that the rubbish is collected on time. Council’s role should never be to participate in divisive federal politics.
Of course, social media commenters lost their heads. One commenter wrote: “Shameful behaviour. Embarrassing, backwards, colonialist and the opposite of leadership.” And another said: “My personal commitment is to spend no moneys in this shire. Not stop for coffee, not go to businesses, not go to activities or events.”
So it seems in Australia, if you dare try to unite Australians under a single flag, you will be met with swift fire and brimstone. The ABC and SBS said it’s wrong to support Australia Day, and the activists will attack you if you dare question Welcome to Country or flying the Aboriginal flag at every opportunity. The United Nations may be located in New York City, but the Divided Nations are clearly headquartered here in Australia.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
Federation Council, located in the Murray region of New South Wales, does some fairly questionable things. For example, they celebrate Christmas! (I know.) Not only that, they actively promote Australia Day. How can that be? According to the ABC: “Australia Day is the most morally complicated day on the calendar.” They note that “the practice of celebrating ‘Australia’ has been and will continue to be mired in our failure to repair the damage we have done.” Oh yes, the damage. In a couple of short centuries, we’ve created a thriving democracy, the envy of the world. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people across the globe move here, millions more want to. Oh yes, we’re a horrible nation.
Regarding Australia Day, our other taxpayer-funded broadcaster SBS declared: “Not a date to celebrate.” We must constantly teach young Aboriginal Australians that modern Australia is a country to be loathed. That will result in a peaceful and harmonious society. So yes, we know something must be awry if this council is actively going against our publicly funded broadcasters and celebrating this great nation.
But they touched a nerve recently when they endorsed a new draft of their Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Protocols, which can be viewed online.
In Part 13, “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flags,” they write, “Council commits to exclusively fly the Australian flag within the Council Chamber during official sessions and on all flagpoles located across the Federation Council area.” They will, however, fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to acknowledge NAIDOC Week and Reconciliation Week. They also note that these protocols require the “Australian flag to be flown in a position of precedence over other flags.”
Oh, this set off a wave of anger. The ABC reported: “NSW council votes to stop flying Indigenous flags and enforce permissions for Welcome to Country.” Basically, they’ll “enforce a permission system for Welcomes to Country at public events.”
You can’t just do them, although I suspect certain activists will try.
They interview one such activist Cheree Toka, who successfully petitioned to permanently display the Aboriginal flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. She said, “It’s to honour the ancestors who lived, fought and survived here and reminds the nation of the land they stand on, to ensure Aboriginal identity is not made invisible for a second time.” There’s certainly no risk of that!
Toka continued, “Flags are not population markers at all, they are statements of recognition and respect. We don’t just disappear or become less traditional owners because our population is small, and we most definitely don’t stop belonging to our land simply because more settlers moved in. Seeing the Aboriginal flag in places of authority signals we belong here and we have a right to be heard and feel safe in the spaces that shape this country.”
Just to be clear, the Australian flag is already inclusive. It includes all Australian people, including Aboriginal activists. To say that each little group of people requires its own flag to be flown alongside the Australian national flag would just result in a fractured nation.
The ABC also interviewed Flag Society of Australia vice-president Tony Burton, who noted, “Aboriginal people were not consulted on Australia’s flag at all.” To be fair, I wasn’t personally consulted either, as I wasn’t born yet. Do I get to fly my own personal flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge?
Federation Council Mayor Cheryl Cook said Council’s goal is to “promote civic neutrality.” She said, “We work on a very neutral basis, and that one symbol provides that neutral space to look after the entire shire and many ratepayers have spoken to us across the duration of the year. The feedback that I have been getting is that there is a need to go back to a civic neutral space.”
And I think that’s fair enough. Council isn’t there to promote one group of Australians over another. It’s there to look after the parks and roads, and make sure that the rubbish is collected on time. Council’s role should never be to participate in divisive federal politics.
Of course, social media commenters lost their heads. One commenter wrote: “Shameful behaviour. Embarrassing, backwards, colonialist and the opposite of leadership.” And another said: “My personal commitment is to spend no moneys in this shire. Not stop for coffee, not go to businesses, not go to activities or events.”
So it seems in Australia, if you dare try to unite Australians under a single flag, you will be met with swift fire and brimstone. The ABC and SBS said it’s wrong to support Australia Day, and the activists will attack you if you dare question Welcome to Country or flying the Aboriginal flag at every opportunity. The United Nations may be located in New York City, but the Divided Nations are clearly headquartered here in Australia.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
