Peninsula Chamber of Commerce is continuing its fight to regain the right to fly the Australian flag on light poles at Umina on special occasions and has labelled the draft Street Banner Policy, Flying of Flags Policy and Street Banner Guide to be presented to Council on July 26 “un-Australian”.
Chamber President, Matthew Wales, said the Chamber has been liaising with Community and Culture Unit Manager, Glenn Cannard, for some time on the formulation of the policies and has made detailed representations to Council.
Wales said the draft policies are specifically aimed at preventing the flag from being installed on light poles along West St.
“(Our) representations were aimed at ensuring that we could once again have our Australian flag banners installed in the Umina Beach retail precinct, particularly on Australia Day (as we have in the past) and ANZAC Day,” he said.
Wales said Council’s view appeared to be the correct approach is to only fly official flags on actual flag poles so Council can ensure all flags are flown in accordance with the relevant protocols.
“As an example national flags cannot be flown at night unless they are properly illuminated,” he said.
“It is timely to note that on all previous occasions the Australian flag banners have been flown, they have always been installed in accordance with the relevant protocols.
“The Chamber has always been conscious of these protocols.
“Further, every flag is on a light pole, directly under the light and hence always illuminated at night.
“As for only flying the Australian flag on flag poles, there are no flag poles in the Umina Beach retail centre and hence, under this draft policy, no Australian Flags could be flown on Australia Day or any other relevant occasion in the town centre.
“This is un-Australian.
“The Chamber objects to this approach and the inclusion of these provisions in the draft policies.
“This is seen as a continuing approach by Council to prevent our Australian Flag Banners being installed on light poles, particularly in West St, and (we) would request that these provisions be removed from the draft.”
A spokesperson said Council is firmly committed to ensuring our national flag flies continually and appropriately while complying with the State and Federal Government protocols, and in accordance with the Australian Flags Booklet publication of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Premiers Department of NSW publication Flags and Emblems of NSW.
“The Draft Flying of Flags Policy incorporates these important protocols,” the spokesperson said.
“The Draft Street Banner Policy and Draft Street Banner Guidelines propose a uniform approach to Council’s management of banner infrastructure in various locations across the Coast and provide opportunities for this infrastructure to be widely utilised and accessible to the whole community.
“Throughout the development of these draft documents, Council officers engaged with a diverse range of key stakeholders including current banner infrastructure users, town centre businesses and business chambers.”
Terry Collins