Crisafulli condemns flag burning, reigniting hate speech debate

The Queensland premier condemned the burning of an Australian flag at an Invasion Day protest in Brisbane on Monday, calling on the federal government to outlaw the act, and triggering fresh debate over hate speech legislation.

Several thousand people gathered in inner-Brisbane on Monday to protest against the date of Australia Day and support First Nations peoples, with one protester photographed burning an Australian flag.

Premier David Crisafulli said the incident was “as disgraceful as you get” and went beyond a legitimate form of protest, adding states would be willing to support the inclusion of flag burning in hate speech laws.

“I think it goes from legitimacy to being provocative,” he said.

“It goes a step further, which is why there has been that justifiable condemnation of the act.”

Crisafulli said the decision would be one for the Commonwealth, “if the leaders in the nation’s capital decided that that was an offence, we’d certainly support it, and we’d certainly police that”.

“The flag is a really important part of who we are as a country, and we should all be tolerant and respectful of that,” he said.

Federal cabinet minister Jason Clare criticised the man who burned the flag as a “knob” who was “obviously just trying to attract attention, and that’s exactly what he’s done”.

“I remember John Howard said something about this back when he was PM. He said that if you change the law here you turn yahoos into martyrs,” Clare told Nine’s Today program, while noting there were state laws that already dealt with the matter.

People burning flags in public places, or which don’t belong to them, can already fall foul of public order and property offences.

The issue of specifically criminalising flag burning has emerged as a political debate at various points over recent decades – with significant constitutional questions.

In 2006, then-prime minister Howard described a burning of an Australian flag by Indigenous protesters in Brisbane as offensive and unrepresentative of mainstream Aboriginal opinion.

“Much as all I despise what they did I do not believe it should be a criminal offence,” he said at the time.

“I see that kind of thing as just as expression, however offensive to the majority of the Australian community, an expression of political opinion.”

Queensland Labor Opposition leader Steven Miles said while he did not condone the behaviour, he thought it ironic that Queensland National figures were “somehow outraged” after last week “blowing the Coalition up about hate crime laws defending freedom of speech”.

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