A New South Wales council has come under fire for its 'extraordinary' ban on the Australian flag, with the Council now revealing it will review the decision. Residents of Central Coast Council, just north of Sydney, claim that the Council has banned all flying and displaying the Australian flag on Council assets, even on Australia Day. Claims and criticism of the ban surfaced on Thursday, with Jim Wilson of 2GB denouncing the move "shameful". ' from the Council in a rant over a decision he said "really made his blood boil," and left him "at a loss for words".
"This is a mob that amassed half a billion dollars in debt and bad taxpayers had to pay the bills for their mismanagement of their finances," Wilson said.
“Those stupid board members were fired and replaced by an administrator, but it seems the shameful decision-making continues.” "For God's sake, this is the Australian flag, those who run the circus on the Central Coast Council don't want it to be flown. "This is the Australian flag, it's a big part of our history, but the Central Coast Council - which should concentrate on trash, potholes and actually fixing their financial mess - say no, you can't fly our national flag on our national day. These mobs don't want to fly the Australian flag on street banners. Seriously, the Council needs to stay on their way. ”
In a statement made by the Central Coast Council, it has since confirmed the flag ban only applies to downtown street banners not all assets. “It should be noted that the recommendations in the Policy report, do not prohibit the raising of flags on Council assets, but only relate to downtown street banners. Following the confusion surrounding the decision, the Council will review and potentially update this banner and flag policy next week at its regular council meeting on October 11th. But there are suggestions the meeting could also be used to formalize the ban.
The president of the Peninsular Chamber of Commerce on the Central Coast, Matthew Wales said the decision to ban the raising of the flag in certain areas was "confusing".
“We have been trying to negotiate with the Central Coast Council for several years for the right to put up the Australian flag banner. “The Central Coast Council is moving to adopt a formal policy to prevent Australian flag banners from being flown on their road assets, it's unbelievable. “We are really at a loss as to what to do at the moment. The business community took up arms and our local community shook their heads.”
Council documents suggest the Council will allow flags to be flown in open spaces upon request and will include flags on "all appropriate infrastructure, including outside the Wyong Administration Building and within the Chambers." "The Council will continue to support appropriate requests to fly the national or official flag in open spaces and community facility assets provided that special flagpole infrastructure is in place," the paper said.
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