and the
Australian Red Ensign 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 mistakenly decked out with New Zealand flags in his honour. • 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,
Tuvalu and
Fiji 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 unofficial pre-1965
national flag was the
Canadian Red Ensign, 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). • The current design of the flag acts as reminder of the history of unjust treatment towards
Indigenous Australians, with Aboriginal activist
Lowitja O'Donoghue arguing in the 1990s that it symbolises "dispossession and oppression" and that it "doesn’t reflect the reality of [modern] Australian life". • The Australian flag was not historically 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
Australian 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 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 wrong 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. Prior to 1941 only 10 percent of military ensigns were Blue and in 1945 Red ensigns were flown along the route of the official end of war parades. 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 and chosen through a
public competition, the choice of designs was not completely free. Specifically, the conditions of entry for the Review of Reviews and subsequent government competition, were highly suggestive that the winning design must include the Union Jack and Southern Cross. Additionally, final approval lay with
King Edward VII and the
British Admiralty, because both the red and blue versions were considered naval ensigns. – only five of them, including the United Kingdom, have the Union Jack in their own flag. ==Arguments for the current flag==