The Aussie Flag issue is flapping in the political wind again.
As the world is rapidly becoming the predicted global village, the issue of our flag and our identity within that village is becoming more complex and confusing to everyone.
The discussion needs to go way beyond what flag we wave or anthem we sing, or political structure we choose. The discussion needs to define who we are and who we want to be.
Australia's development has been very Anglo Celtic with Christian based values. We have not needed to understand who we were because we were mostly all the same, sharing 20th Century British customs, values, attitudes and behaviours.
No more.
As we move into an Australasian trading bloc reality, we are increasingly forming business relationships with predominantly Asian cultures based on a Confucian value system.
At the same time, Perth is becoming truly multicultural, with over 200 ethnic origins within our citizen group,
What a vast change in only 25 years!
Perth is intensely and enthusiastically forming commercial partnerships within South East Asia and mainland China much more quickly than our Sydney or Melbourne counterparts.
We are swiftly learning new ways of doing business, new ways of relating to people, and new ways of seeing the world.
While this makes us much better citizens of the global village, it also makes us more uncertain of our own identity.
There are two conflicting forces as work. We are looking inward for a sense of our uniqueness and looking outward to create a shared way of doing things with other villagers.
What may be most important, then, is not whether or not we change the flag, but what the flag, any Aussie flag, represents in terms of who we are and who we want to be.
Let's have this discussion and worry about what flag we need when we know who we need it for.
Business News 26 April 1996
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