Senator Scott Ryan asked Senate President John Hogg and staff from the Department of Parliamentary Services how a group of protesters turned a ceremonial fire into the burning of the flag outside Parliament House in January. Read a report in The Australian online.
Official approved parliament fire which led to burning of Australian flag
Milanda Rout, The Australian, February 13, 2012
A SENIOR parliamentary officer allowed indigenous protesters to conduct a ceremonial burning outside Parliament House which led to the nation’s flag being set alight on the building’s forecourt.
Senate estimates today heard the Usher of the Black Rod, Brien Hallett, authorised a “ceremonial fire” request by protesters 24 hours after last month’s Australia Day tent embassy riot.
Liberal senator Scott Ryan quizzed Senate President Senator John Hogg on the appropriateness of the Black Rod’s approval, given that protesters had forced Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to flee a restaurant the day before.
He said it was such a “tense environment” that to allow such an act and the eventual flag burning was “profoundly offensive” to all Australians.
Senator Hogg said the Black Rod never expected an Australian flag to be burned in the ceremonial fire and never authorised such an act.