Pauline Hanson demands rainbow flag ban – and where she doesn’t want to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags anymore

Pauline Hanson has said she wants to remove the rainbow flag on top of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags from Parliament House. 

The One Nation leader told Sky News on Wednesday she backed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s pledge to ditch Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags and only use the Australian one as a backdrop for announcements and press conferences.

In a fiery interview she also demanded the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags be gotten ‘rid of’ from Parliament House.

‘And also the rainbow flag – that’s another one I am angry about as well,’ Senator Hanson told host Chris Kenny. 

After winning office, Albanese government ministers introduced having the three flags as backdrops for their official and broadcast appearances.

However, Mr Dutton on Monday said he will continue to just standing before the national one if elected prime minister, as he currently does.

Senator Hanson said she was furious when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags were displayed along with the Australian one in the Senate, a measure introduced in June 2022 following the election of the Albanese government.

‘I think it’s wrong and it should not be allowed,’ she said.

‘We are one flag, one nation and one people and that’s how it should be.

‘It is divisive, and I hope Peter Dutton goes through with that if he becomes Prime Minister of this country, get rid of the flags out of the chamber unless you want to put a referendum to the people of Australia.’

Shortly before Labor moved the motion to have the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Senate flags displayed, Senator Hanson gave a speech pointing out the national flag came from a competition and that a 1977 plebiscite was held on the national anthem.

‘The people should have a choice in this, not this Parliament,’ she said.

‘This is the people’s house, it is not for the Senators to decide this whether the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags are flown in this chamber.

‘I’m warning people this is divisive. We are one nation, one people, one flag.’ 

Earlier this week, Mr Dutton confirmed that if elected prime minister next year, he will only display the Australian flag at press conferences, claiming that displaying three flags is ‘dividing our country unnecessarily’.

‘We should have respect for the Indigenous flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag, but they are not our national flags,’ Mr Dutton said. 

Senator Hanson said the only flag that should be flown from government buildings is the Australian one

During an appearance on Seven’s Sunrise, Mr Dutton was asked whether his stance on displaying the Aboriginal flag at press conferences also applied to flying it on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

‘My preference would be that we just, frankly, accept that we have one national flag,’ he said but noted it was a state government issue.

‘For us at a federal level, I’m not going to pretend that our country can be united when we’re asking people to identify in different ways.’

Australia should be ‘very proud of our Indigenous heritage,’ but Mr Dutton did not believe the country could be united under three flags.

The Aboriginal flag permanently replaced the NSW state flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in June 2022, despite controversy over the $25million cost of installing a pole for the flag.

‘I think it brings unity to our country and I think it’s a small price to pay for that unification,’ Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet said at the time.

Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy on Tuesday said Mr Dutton’s stance on three flags showed he is a divisive figure who appears ‘unfit to be prime minister’.

‘The Australian Aboriginal Flag and Torres Strait Islander Flag were proclaimed flags of Australia under section 5 of the Flags Act 1953 on 14 July 1995,’ Ms McCarthy said.

‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is the oldest continuing culture in the world, and I believe all Australians should take great pride in that.’