{{Short description|Australian act of Parliament defining the flags of Australia}} {{Use Australian English|date=April 2024}} {{italic title}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Infobox legislation | short_title = ''Flags Act 1953'' | legislature = Parliament of Australia | image = Coat of Arms of Australia.svg | long_title = An Act to declare a certain Flag to be the Australian National Flag and to make other provision with respect to Flags | citation = [https://www.legislation.gov.au/C1954A00001/latest/text ''Flags Act 1953'' (Cth)] | enacted_by = House of Representatives | introduced_by = Robert Menzies | 3rd_reading = 2 December 1953 | 3rd_reading2 = 3 December 1953 | enacted_by2 = Senate | royal_assent = 14 February 1954 | date_commenced = 14 April 1954 | amended_by = ''Statute Law Revision Act 2008, Flags Amendment Act 1998, Flags Amendment Act 1981, Statute Law Revision Act 1973, Flags Act 1954'' | related = | status = Amended }} The '''''Flags Act 1953''''' is an act of the Parliament of Australia which defines the official Australian National Flag and the Australian Red Ensign. Other flags may also be proclaimed as official flags of Australia under this act; for example, the Australian Aboriginal flag and the Australian Defence Force ensign.
==History== {{Further|Flag of Australia#History}} In the decades following the Federation of Australia in 1901 the Red Ensign was the pre-eminent flag in use by private citizens on land. This was largely due to the Commonwealth Government and flag suppliers restricting sales of the blue ensign to the general public.<ref>Elizabeth Kwan, ''Flag and Nation'', University of New South Wales press, 2006, p. 106.</ref> By traditional British understanding, the blue ensign was reserved for official government use.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/australian-national-symbols/australian-flags|title=AUSTRALIAN FLAGS|website=www.pmc.gov.au|accessdate=3 November 2020}}</ref> State and local governments, private organisations and individuals were expected to use the red ensign.<ref>Kwan, 2006, p. 9-10.</ref>
thumb|right|Extract of memo from the Prime Minister's Department dated 6 March 1939 concerning flag flying procedures.
In the 1920s there was debate over whether the blue ensign was reserved for Commonwealth buildings only, culminating in a 1924 agreement that the Union Flag should take precedence as the National Flag and that state and local governments were henceforth able to use the blue ensign.<ref>Kwan, 2006, p. 100, 106.</ref> A memo from the Prime Minister of Australia's Department dated 6 March 1939 stated: "the Red Ensign is the flag to be flown by the public generally" and the federal government policy was "The flying of the Commonwealth Blue Ensign is reserved for Commonwealth Government use but there is no reservation in the case of the Commonwealth Merchant Flag, or Red Ensign".<ref>National Archives of Australia (NAA: A461, A336/1/1 Part 2).</ref>
In 1940 the Victorian government passed legislation allowing schools to purchase blue ensigns.<ref>Kwan, 2006, p. 92.</ref> The following year prime minister Robert Menzies issued a media release recommending that the blue ensign be flown at schools, government buildings and by private citizens and continued use of the red ensign by merchant ships, providing it was done so respectfully.<ref>Kwan, 2006, p. 92.</ref> Prime Minister Ben Chifley issued a similar statement in 1947.<ref>Kwan, 2006, pp.96–97</ref>
On 4 December 1950, Menzies affirmed the Blue ensign as the National flag, and in 1951 King George VI approved the government's recommendation.<ref>''Australian flags''. Australia. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Awards and Culture Branch. (3rd ed.). Barton ACT: Dept. of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 2006. p. 44.</ref> thumb|upright=1.0|Second schedule to the ''Flags Act 1953''. When the Flags Bill was introduced into parliament on 20 November 1953, Menzies said: "This bill is very largely a formal measure which puts into legislative form what has become almost the established practice in Australia... The design adopted was submitted to His Majesty King Edward VII, and he was pleased to approve of it as the Australian flag in 1902. However, no legislative action has ever been taken to determine the precise form of the flag or the circumstances of its use, and this bill has been brought down to produce that result."<ref>{{Cite Hansard|url= https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;db=HANSARD80;id=hansard80%2Fhansardr80%2F1953-11-20%2F0022;orderBy=_fragment_number,doc_date-rev;query=Dataset%3Ahansardr,hansardr80%20Decade%3A%221950s%22%20Year%3A%221953%22%20Month%3A%2211%22%20Day%3A%2220%22;rec=0;resCount=Default |access-date=11 December 2024|archive-date=11 December 2024 |position=Prime Minister |speaker=Robert Menzies |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20241211071137/https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;db=HANSARD80;id=hansard80%2Fhansardr80%2F1953-11-20%2F0022;orderBy=_fragment_number,doc_date-rev;query=Dataset%3Ahansardr,hansardr80%20Decade%3A%221950s%22%20Year%3A%221953%22%20Month%3A%2211%22%20Day%3A%2220%22;rec=0;resCount=Default/ |jurisdiction=Commonwealth of Australia |page=367 |hansard=House Hansard |house=House of Representatives |date=20 November 1953 |title=Flags Bill 1953 Second Reading}}</ref>
Queen Elizabeth II gave royal assent to the ''Flags Act 1953'' on 14 February 1954 after opening the Commonwealth Parliament during her 1954 Royal Tour. It was the first of the few Commonwealth statutes enacted by the reigning monarch.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18410353|access-date=11 December 2024|title=Queen Signs Flags Act|location=Canberra|via=Trove|page=7|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|issue=36,242|date=17 February 1954}}</ref>
In 1995, the Australian Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag were proclaimed official flags of Australia under section 5 of the Act.<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240909021420/https://www.pmc.gov.au/resources/australian-flags-booklet/part-3-other-official-flags-australia/flags-australias-indigenous-peoples |archive-date=9 September 2024|url-status=live|work=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |access-date=11 December 2024 |title=Australian Flags booklet |date=15 July 2022 |at=Flags of Australia's Indigenous Peoples |url=https://www.pmc.gov.au/resources/australian-flags-booklet/part-3-other-official-flags-australia/flags-australias-indigenous-peoples}}</ref>
==Description of the Act== thumb|The cover of the Flags Act, featuring the signature of Queen Elizabeth II The act specifies the colours and construction details for the Australian National Flag and the Australian Red Ensign (also known as the Australian Merchant Flag). Sections 5 & 6 confer statutory powers on the Governor-General to appoint 'flags and ensigns of Australia', and authorise warrants and make rules as to use of flags.<ref>{{cite Legislation AU|Cth|act|fa195361|Flags Act 1953|5}}</ref><ref>{{cite Legislation AU|Cth|act|fa195361|Flags Act 1953|6}}</ref> Section 8 ensures that the 'right or privilege' of a person to fly the Union Jack is not affected by the Act.<ref>{{cite Legislation AU|Cth|act|fa195361|Flags Act 1953|8}}</ref>
The Act originally contained a serious drafting error in Table A of the Act. The outer diameter of the Commonwealth Star was recorded as being three-eighths of the width of the flag, instead of the true value of three-tenths of the width of the flag. The Act was amended to correct the error in 1954.<ref>{{cite Legislation AU|Cth|num_act|fa195458195488|Flags Act 1954}}</ref> == ''Flags Amendment Act 1998'' ==
The ''Flags Amendment Act 1998'' was passed after the 1996 Australian federal election, during a period where republicanism and other debates about Australian national identity were prominent. The ''Flags Amendment Act 1998'' added to section 3 of the Flags Act and provided that the present Australian National Flag could only be replaced if a majority of State and Territory electors qualified to vote for the House of Representatives agree. It was promoted by its supporters as "ensuring a degree of protection for"<ref>[https://www.anfa-national.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Newsletter-1998.pdf 1998 ANFA newsletter]</ref> and "the first substantive parliamentary steps towards defining a process for the change of"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ausflag.com.au/government_accepts_advice.asp|title = Government accepts Ausflag advice}}</ref> the Australian National Flag.
=== Parliamentary debate ===
During parliamentary debate in the House of Representatives over the Flags Amendment Bill 1996, Laurie Ferguson MP, Member for Reid, whilst supporting the legislation, raised concerns that, "whilst the bill cements the idea of a plebiscite, with people being consulted in a manner similar to the consultation on the change to the national anthem, one of the weaknesses of the bill is that it does not set out any long-term process for the consideration of change." Referring to the fact that a future parliament may rescind or even ignore the amendment "in theory, it is not quite what it is cracked up to be in so far as, theoretically, a new government can alter it at any stage".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ausflag.com.au/parliamentary_debates_laurie_fergusion.asp|title = Parliamentary Debates 22 August 1996 Laurie Ferguson}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C1954A00001 ''Flags Act 1953'' (Series)] on the Federal Register of Legislation ** [https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C1954A00001/Amendments Amendments] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080602113954/http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=20 Original ''Flags Act 1953''], National Archives of Australia * [https://web.archive.org/web/20051106205808/http://www.aph.gov.au/Library/pubs/bd/1996-97/97bd018.htm Flags Amendment Bill 1996] 26 June 1996, House of Representatives . (Passed as ''Flags Amendment Act 1998'', but since superseded)
Category:Acts of the Parliament of Australia Category:1953 in Australian law *Act