Australia Day Protest - Flag Burned & Spat On - Unlawful or Offensive?

During the violent 2012 Australia Day Protests the Australian flag, a National Symbol, was burned and spat on by protesters.

Do you consider the act to be 'offensive behaviour'? Do you believe that this was an 'unlawful act'?

Justifiable or not, whatever you think or believe all Australians, citizens, residents, visitors other groups and individuals in our country must abide by the laws and regulations. So what are the 'Laws & Regulations' governing flag burning or the destruction or desecration of national symbols?

"The Australian regime takes a more relaxed attitude to flag burning or the destruction of national symbols than the US and some other countries.

In essence there are no enactments that seek to protect 'national honour' through discrete prohibitions on burning an Australian flag or defacing a national symbol as such. Instead Australian law at the federal and state/territory levels features offences regarding -

* property (eg destroying/defacing a flag or portrait that is the property of another individual or organisation)

* public order (eg offensive behaviour under state police or crimes enactments) Burning of the flag may be offensive to others.

There is no explicit reference in the 1901 federal constitution to the national flag (or to state/territory flags) or to the protection of national symbols." [Extract from Caslon Analytics - Flag Burning]

As there are no enactments that seek to protect 'national honour' one could be forgiven for assuming that if any other parties flag or symbol was burned or desecrated then the same enactments as above would apply for the offence.

In the light of the above extract; if the flag/symbol isn't your or your organisations property &/or if the act of burning a national symbol is offensive to others then you may be committing a Property or Public Order offence.

Read an Age account of the Australia Day Protest  and you may want to read about 'Non-Violent Protests'