THE Aboriginal flag costs twice as much as the Australian one, and the price difference impacts the taxpayer.
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Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter spent more than $11,238 to supply his electorate’s councils, police stations, schools and Aboriginal organisations with flags in the first six months this year.
There are 19 RSLs, 18 local councils, 50 police stations and more than 200 schools in the Kennedy electorate, which covers 568,993 square kilometres.
The nation’s media assumed the flags are Australian but a staff member for Mr Katter said the costs included Torres Strait and Aboriginal flags as well.
Each Australian knitted flag costs Mr Katter’s office $47.18, yet the Aboriginal knitted flag is $96.93.
According to the Naidoc website, the Australian Aboriginal flag is protected under copyright.
“(It) may be reproduced only in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 or with the permission of Harold Thomas,” the website said.
Constituents’ requests for flags have increased in recent years as they become aware that Mr Katter supplies these flags and the Aboriginal flags are especially popular during Naidoc week celebrations, the spokeswoman said.
“Bob has been very supportive of Naidoc Week, especially this year.
“We probably had double the requests this year,” she said.
During Naidoc week Mr Katter’s office supplied 3100 hand waving flags.
2358 of these flags were Aboriginal.
The prices of these cheaper and smaller flags were nearly equal; 48 cents for Australian flags and 50 cents for Aboriginal flags.
The spokeswoman said that Mr Katter also supplied around 650 hand waving flags for the Gordonvale Indigenous Rugby League Carnival in November.
The costs of flags came out of Mr Katter’s operating budget.
Mr Katter’s expenditure shows five separate payments from January to May for flags.These payments range between $1179.50 and $2853.70.
The largest sum was for the month leading up to Australia Day.
On a more recent bill dated October 19, the federal member was billed for 20 knitted Australian flags, 12 Aboriginal and 12 Torres Strait Islander flags, and for 500 Aboriginal hand waving flags.
