Transcript - Noongar Radio - Free the Flag
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
NOONGAR RADIO WITH MATT PATRICK
WEDNESDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2020
SUBJECTS: Free the Flag Private Members Bill
MARK PATRICK, HOST: I've got Patrick Gorman here. Labor MP for Perth. Good morning Patrick and welcome to the Noongar Radio.
PATRICK GORMAN, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR PERTH: Good morning, Mark. Good morning to your listeners. I love chatting to Noongar Radio, so thank you very much for having me on.
PATRICK: No worries at all. We want to talk about the flag this morning and the stuff that's going on in Parliament like you guys have got a private member's bill due to go in this morning I guess it is. The Liberals have been saying that, I don't know, I guess it's a stunt. What do you have to say about that?
GORMAN: Yeah, well I've received a lot of correspondence from people in the Perth electorate who want to see Parliament do something about the flag. I think the Free the Flag petition has had some 140,000 signatures. So this is something that is pretty deeply felt across the Australian community. If it was if it was the national anthem or the Australian flag in this situation. There would be community uproar and Parliament would legislate to fix this immediately. And so I don't think it's a stunt because I think this is something that people feel really deeply about.
PATRICK: And you know, what do you guys intend to do? How does this private member's bill thing work?
GORMAN: Yeah, well Linda Burney who is our Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians has been talking to people about how do we make sure that we can do something to address this concern. It's been reported that she's in the process of drafting a private member's bill that is designed to resolve this issue and I think Linda's the perfect person to be working on it. She's obviously working very closely with my fellow Western Australian Patrick Dodson the Shadow Assistant Minister for Reconciliation and others so we can get this done. I also recognise that Minister Ken Wyatt is working hard to get this done. This is Something that should bring the Parliament together because what we're seeing where the flag is unable to be on AFL players jumpers during their indigenous round, I mean it's just ridiculous.
PATRICK: I've got a question directly related to that, now the flag not being available to put on those jumpers is just a case of the AFL not willing to pay the current owners or the current lessees for permission to actually use it. Isn't it that the only thing that's holding them back from using it.
GORMAN: Well I think first of all that everyone recognises that the Federal Court indeed recognised Harold Thomas the creator of the Aboriginal flag and he owns that copyright. There are concerns, there are legitimate concerns about how WAM and clothing have been using their license and enforcing their licence. And I don't want to see people jacking up the prices of that license at a time when we're trying to find a way to make sure that it can be freely used. All our other national symbols - if we were to start saying, "if you want to use the Australian flag there are appropriate ways to use such a flag" or we start charging copyright for putting the kangaroo on things but we get to a really ridiculous point. But I back the AFL. Almost all of us have signed to the Free the Flag campaign. And sometimes as a community, you've just kind of got to go. "well, what's in the national interest?" For me, I think it's in the national interest it's for all Australians, but particularly Aboriginal Australians, to feel that they can use, wear, fly and can express themselves through that flag at all times without having to stop and think, "oh, I'm going to breach copyright". You know, it's just doesn't sit right with me.
PATRICK: It doesn't sit right with me either. Copyright is a really weird thing, like it seems that if you draw something that's similar to it you can be busted for that as well. And it doesn't necessarily really have to be an identical copy it can be just something that just looks like it a bit.
GORMAN: And that's where it gets very confusing and some of the best art we see is art that builds on other art. So you don't want to get to a situation where people can't express themselves, they can't use the flag or use the colours of the flag. And I love walking around on the streets And love walking around and seeing it on the streets, and there's a famous one in Redfern in Sydney, I know there's one down in Woolstores in Fremantle, you see a recreation unique to that location of the Aboriginal flag. And I don't want to see anything that stops those sort of things being able to happen or limit artists in something that really it is recognised. You know the flag back to 1953 already recognises that this is one of the flags of Australia. So it's already enshrined in our laws it's just about how people have the freedom to use it. And I think there is, well we might disagree in politics about the different ways in which we would go through how you free the flag, I think there is universal agreement that we should free it and I mean that's hopefully what we get done this year, so that when we get to the AFL Indigenous Round in 2021 this is no longer a debate.
PATRICK: Yes, that would be really good. Well thanks for coming on and talking to us about that. I think it's a really important issue, Patrick. Appreciate your time.
GORMAN: Thank you, Mark. I appreciate your time and thanks to the station and all your listeners.
ENDS