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This article is more than 1 year old

Organisers of the controversial Australian Conservative Political Action Conference have been warned that its use of the Australian flag breaches government guidelines.

Guardian Australia understands the commonwealth flag officer has contacted the organisers to warn CPAC Australia has breached rules that specify the flag “should be used in a dignified manner and reproduced completely and accurately”.

CPAC Australia has used a segment of the flag in the shape of a star on logos to promote the three-day conservative talkfest in Sydney, including on Twitter ads that featured former Breitbart editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam.

Kassam – who has said that Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s mouth and legs should be taped shut “so she can’t reproduce” – was one of a number of attendees who Labor argued should have their visas cancelled.

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Coalition conservatives including Tony Abbott and senator Amanda Stoker spoke at the opening day of the conference on Friday, after the government gave the green light for its members to attend, citing their right of free speech.

Australian government guidelines allow commercial use of the national flag but include stipulations that it “should not be covered with other words, illustrations or objects” and “all symbolic parts of the flag should be identifiable, such as the Union Jack, the Southern Cross and the Federation Star”.

The CPAC Australia logo omits the Southern Cross and the other two features are not clearly identifiable.

Screenshot of CPAC Australia Twitter account featuring modified Australian flag logo. Photograph: CPAC Australia

On the sideline of the conference on Friday the CPAC Australia organiser Andrew Cooper denied knowledge of the alleged incorrect use, suggesting he may not have read correspondence from the flag officer.

MP Craig Kelly, who is also speaking at the conference, said he was also unaware of the controversy and queried why CPAC should be pulled up for its use of the flag when “you can buy a pair of thongs with the Australian flag on it”.

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The CPAC Australia conference also features Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro and New South Wales One Nation politician Mark Latham.

Ticket costs for the three-day event range from $599 for a “Reagan VIP pass”, which gives attendees access to a speakers’ room and VIP lunches, an “Iron Lady general pass” for $349, and a “Menzies three-day pass” for $149.

Cooper has told Guardian Australia organisers plan to run the event for “many, many years down the track … [and] have a vision for this that has thousands and thousands of attendees, not hundreds and hundreds”.

Labor expended much political energy attacking the conference and its attendees in the final week of parliament, but failed to shame the Morrison government into cancelling the visas of any of its speakers.

The leader of the government in the Senate, Mathias Cormann, delivered a strong rebuke of Kassam’s comments but defended the right of government members to attend CPAC on the basis this “does not imply agreement or endorsement with the views of any of the other speakers attending in any way”.

Cormann said “the way to defeat bad ideas, bad arguments and unacceptable views is through debate, especially with those we disagree with”.

“It is not by limiting our conversations only to those who at all times share all of our views.”