My gripe is with Mr Goodlass's comments. What does being a republican have to do with being a member of the Greens?

The Australian National Flag is a symbol of the unity and history of our nation, it was children of this nation who entered the competition to design the flag at the request of the first Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Unlike Canada, Australia was six independent colonies at the time of Federation. The Commonwealth is the federation of those six states; not the larger Commonwealth of Nations previously known as the British Empire.

In 1901 when the flag was first proclaimed it was decided that the stars on the flag represented the peoples of Australia, regardless of race, or origin as although the White Australia Policy was still in place, we had people in the Commonwealth from nations all across the globe, from Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

It may be time for a new flag, if Australia becomes a republic on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, however until that time, the flag is our national symbol, our rallying point and the symbol that is draped across the casket of our fallen men and women who have given service to this nation without any bias to race, gender, religion, or socio-economic status ... they serve for their mates and those they defend.

Leave the flag alone for the time being. But by all accounts if you are Australian, you had better respect it and not dishonour it as we will be watching.

Further to the author who wrote to the editor about the article, you may need to read your flag history (available on itsanhonour.gov.au).

Both the blue and red ensigns were approved in 1901 and carried by Australian forces in WWI and WWII, however due to confusion of where and when each was to be used, the act was created in 1953 to clear this up.

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I'm sad to burst Maurice Corlett's celebratory balloon ("Fresh hope of a republic", The Daily Advertiser, June 23) but Albo's Australia has no "Minister for the Republic".

Member for Kingsford Smith Matt Thistlethwaite was dubbed "assistant minister", but he has no minister in that portfolio for him to assist.

Perhaps he's just to stick his beak into any other item of business which has an actual minister whenever he thinks that he might have something bleedingly obvious to offer.

I can't see Mr Albanese risking the next election on an already defeated republican cause.

The clue might be in the surname of his assistant with no one to assist - "this'll wait".

Corlett quotes a Henry Lawson poem (A song for the republic) beginning "Sons (and daughters) of the South, aroused at last!"

No, not true: Lawson did not write "(and daughters)" anywhere in the poem, it's all just "sons".

Wantonly rewording a poem to give it a woke, non-sexist sensibility is a good indication of the left's regard for fact - look forward to lots less fact over the next couple of years.

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