Policy is about all flags to fly

By Lachlan Ellis

Council will put a draft ‘Flag Flying Policy’ out for community consultation, after Councillors approved a motion to receive it “for further consideration at the next Ordinary Meeting of Council”.

The draft Flag Flying Policy came before Council at its Ordinary Meeting on Wednesday 7 September, having been prepared in response to a notice of motion moved over 18-months ago, on 3 February 2021.

The policy concerns how community members or organisations can make a request for Council to fly any flags not included in the Annual Flag Schedule, namely the Australian National Flag, the Victorian State Flag, and the Australian Aboriginal Flag.

The Moorabool Shire Pennant is also flown at Council’s Darley office. A new addition to the Annual Flag Schedule included within the draft policy is the Rainbow Flag, which would be flown on IDAHOBIT on 17 May.

Cr Tonia Dudzik moved the motion to receive the draft policy, with Cr David Edwards seconding the motion.

“A lot of work has gone into this policy, it’s a standard process of when government organisations fly flags…it takes into account the needs of everyday Australians, the RSL, it takes into account the needs of Aboriginal and Indigenous people, as well as the rainbow community. It’s a standard practice, and I think that this policy is the best way forward,” Cr Dudzik said.

“It’s a very basic thing, there’s a reason we would fly these flags, they mean a lot to different groups in the community. It’s a small thing to do for a lot of different groups.”

Cr Edwards argued such a policy was “overdue”.

“Without policy it becomes an argument every time. I think this is a good policy, and like all policies, as we learn from this, we will update and amend it in due course,” he said.

Mayor Cr Tom Sullivan vacated the Chair to speak against the motion.

“The reason I’m raising some opposition to this is, we definitely need a flag policy, but what we have is not a codification of our current practices, it goes beyond that. It seeks to incorporate a flag which we don’t fly currently at our buildings, which doesn’t even meet the criteria of flying a flag that this policy espouses,” he said.

“I think we need to separate the thing, have a flag policy to codify what we currently do through practice, and then we go through another process of admission whether any flag should be coming in in that policy. It hasn’t even been vetted by what the policy says itself, and that is, there’s a form there an applicant would fill out, then be assessed.”

Cr Dudzik said the motion was “not to make a change, but to put something out to the community for comment” – Cr Paul Tatchell said he didn’t see anywhere in the recommendation that suggested community consultation would occur.

“It is proposed that this policy would go on our Have Your Say website as well for a period of 20 days, and then that feedback would be collated and then brought back with the policy at the next meeting,” Council CEO Derek Madden responded.

Councillors Dudzik, Edwards, Ally Munari, and Moira Berry voted in favour of the motion, thus it was carried.

If a flag is approved to be flown under the terms of the draft Flag Flying Policy, it cannot replace the Australian National Flag, but will replace the Victorian State Flag if approved in Ballan, or the Moorabool Shire Pennant if approved in Darley.