Saturday 7 October 1995
Harold Scruby, the executive director of Ausflag, responded to the news item on page 1 of The Australian of 3 October 1995 with a letter published in The Australian of 7-8 October:
This is hardly carrying the flag.
The Australian flag should always be flown aloft and free and never be allowed to fall on the ground. It should never be used to cover a table or seat.
Yet purported monarchists and traditionalists, Dame Leonie Kramer and Messers Murray, Waddy, Abbott and Jones are pictured on the front page of The Australian (3/10) breaking all of these time-honoured traditions. Dame Leonie and Messrs Abbott and Jones are actually leaning on the flag.
If the "Australians for Constitutional Monarchy" must continue to deceptively link the flag with the republican debate they should at least give the Australian flag (whatever its design) the respect it clearly deserves.
Disrespect for the Australian flag is disrespect for our Head of State, Her Majesty the Queen of Australia.