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The Australian flag debate is a periodic question over whether the Australian flag should be changed, particularly to remove the Union Jack from the canton, but also to possibly introduce a completely new design without the Southern Cross. The debate has often arisen in connection with the issue of republicanism in Australia. It has come to a head on a number of occasions, such as the period immediately preceding the Australian Bicentenary in 1988 and during the prime ministership of Paul Keating, who had publicly raised the topic of flag change during the early-1990s economic recession. ==Arguments in support of changing the flag== The case for changing the flag has been led by the organisation known as Ausflag. The organisation has not consistently supported one design but is opposed to the Eureka Flag and has sponsored a number of design competitions to develop alternative flag candidates. Supporters of changing the flag have made the following arguments: * The flag is not distinctive because it contains the national flag of another country in a position of prominence. In particular, the flag is difficult to distinguish from a variety of flags based on the British Blue Ensign, most notably the national flag of New Zealand and the state flag of Victoria. For example, when Australian prime minister Bob Hawke visited Canada in 1984, Ottawa was decked out with New Zealand flags in his honour.〔 The Australian Monarchist League, during their "No" campaign for the Australian republic referendum in 1999, displayed the New Zealand flag instead of the Australian flag in one of their pamphlets.〔 (【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.ausflag.com.au/images/appeal.gif ) 〕 Again in 2013, the Australian Monarchist League mistakenly captioned the New Zealand flag as being the Australian flag on their website.〔 A similar claim has been made by another Prime Minister about his predecessor: . 〕〔 In a similar vein, the Australian National Flag Association's website uses a black and white photograph to illustrate the national flag's use by Australian service men and women since 1901, the flag is in fact a red ensign.〕 * It does not accurately connote Australia's status as an independent nation. The Union Jack at the canton suggests Australia is a British colony or dependency. New Zealand, Fiji and Tuvalu are the only other independent nations in the world to feature the Union Jack on their national flags. Other Commonwealth countries whose flags originally depicted the Union Jack have since changed them without becoming republics, while Canada, whose official pre-1965 national flag was the Union Jack, also adopted a new flag design without becoming a republic. The Australian flag's colours of red, white and blue are neither Australia's official national colours (green and gold) nor its traditional heraldic colours (blue and gold). * In representing only Australia's British heritage, the flag is anachronistic and does not reflect the change to a multicultural, pluralist society. In particular, the flag makes no mention of indigenous Australians, many of whom regard the Union Jack as a symbol of colonial oppression and dispossession. * The existing flag is historically not the prime national symbol. For most of the time since Federation, it was flown alongside the British Union Jack which took precedence as the national flag from 1924 to 1954. Until the late 1920s the Federation Flag remained more popular than the Australian flag for public and even some official events. For example, the Federation Flag was flown during the 1927 visit to Australia of the Duke and Duchess of York, the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The number of points of the stars have varied since 1901 and the present blue version was not adopted as the "national" flag until 1954. Before then, the Union Jack took precedence and confusion reigned between whether the red or blue version of the Australian flag was to be preferred, with the red often winning out. * It is spurious to claim that Australians have "fought and died under the flag", given that during most of the wars Australians have been involved in, they have usually "fought under" various British flags or the Australian Red Ensign.〔 Australian forces in the Sudan War (1885), the Boxer Rebellion (1900–1901) and the Boer War (1899–1902) fought under the Union Jack. The First World War was the first to use the Red Ensign although the Union Jack dominated. World War II saw the Blue Ensign used for forts while the Red Ensign was used by the troops. In the Korean War, Australians fought under the United Nations' Flag. The first war to be fought under the Blue Ensign was Vietnam (1965–1972).〕 Prior to 1941 only 10 per cent of military ensigns were Blue and in 1945 Red ensigns were flown along the route of the official end of war parades.〔(Australia's Forgotten Flag. The Red Ensign ) Digger History: history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Forces〕 The flag made in secret by the Changi prisoners-of-war was a red ensign. The coffins of Australia's war dead were draped with the Union Jack. * Although the flag was designed by four Australians, including two teenagers, and a man from New Zealand〔''Australian Flags'', p. 40.〕 and chosen through a public competition, the conditions of entry for the Review of Reviews competition – which was integrated into the government initiative – were highly suggestive that the winning design must include the Union Jack and Southern Cross,〔(Competition For A Flag ) The Evening Herald flag competition had stipulated that the flag must include both the Union Jack and the Southern Cross. The Review of Reviews competition specifically stated that "such absolute limitations" would not apply but that any entry "which omitted these symbols might have small chance of success." The Federal Government 1901 competition combined the Review of Reviews with their own. Of the 32,823 designs entered in the Government competition the "great majority" contained both the Union Jack and the Southern Cross. The judges in choosing the winners stated "it was apparent that a Commonwealth flag, to be representative, should contain: the Union Jack... it was felt that the only additional emblem required was one representing the Federation of the six States".〕 and final approval lay with King Edward VII and, because both the red and blue versions were considered naval ensigns, the British Admiralty.〔 * There are 53 countries in the Commonwealth of Nations — only five of them, including the United Kingdom, have the Union Jack in their own flag. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Australian flag debate」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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