On the back of a number of legal stoushes that have seen Aboriginal organisations charged or served with Cease and Desist notices for reproducing the Aboriginal flag, Labor has called on the Morrison Government to find a solution.
\nFederal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon spoke in the Federal Parliament on the issue yesterday, saying that Aboriginal people and organisations had been prohibited from using the flag, which has been copyrighted by a privately owned clothing company.
\n\u201cTragically, Aboriginal people are finding themselves unable to use this important cultural symbol because the licensing rights now belong to a private company, WAM Clothing,\u201d Ms Claydon said.
\n\u201cThe idea that something so deeply symbolic as an official flag of Australia could be sold or licensed to a private company is profoundly troubling.\u201d
\nMs Claydon said WAM Clothing was a for-profit company founded by a Queensland businessman, Ben Wooster, who is one of two non-Indigenous owners.
\n\u201cMr Wooster’s previous business venture was Birubi Art, which last year made history for all the wrong reasons. Now defunct, Birubi Art was found to be misleading consumers and was fined a record $2.3 million for selling thousands of Indonesian-made items as so-called genuine and authentic Aboriginal art,\u201d Ms Claydon said.
\n\u201cRegretfully, WAM is now strongly enforcing its legal rights by registering ‘cease and desist’ orders for those who use the Aboriginal flag.\u201d
\nMs Claydon said the Aboriginal flag conveys deep historical meaning.
\n\u201cThe Aboriginal Flag was born out of resistance and struggle \u2013 it remains a powerful symbol of unity, pride and identity,\u201d Ms Claydon said.
\n\u201cNo other official \u201cFlag of Australia\u201d is licensed to a private, for-profit company \u2013 a company that is clearly determined to stop the very same people this flag represents from using it without cost or the need for consent.\u201d
\nLabor has called on the Morrison Government to step in and find a solution.
\n\u201cThe Aboriginal Flag is an iconic national symbol that should always be about people and pride, not profit,\u201d Ms Claydon said.
\n\u201cThis amendment calls on the Government to do everything in its power to free the Aboriginal flag so it can be used by all Australians, while also respecting and protecting the rights of the flag\u2019s original designer, Harold Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the back of a number of legal stoushes that have seen Aboriginal organisations charged or served with Cease and Desist notices for reproducing the Aboriginal flag, Labor has called on the Morrison Government to find a solution. Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon spoke in the Federal Parliament on the issue yesterday, saying that … Continue reading “LABOR BACKS CALLS TO FREE THE FLAG”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}