Yes, I grant you, when you wander into the realms of what is "un-Australian", you can quickly get lost in a miasma of hoary breast-beating, all to the tune of Waltzing Matilda, but ... as you might guess, I can't resist.

For I refer, of course, to a report on Monday that notes, as of recently, companies face being banned from doing any federal building work "if employees display the Eureka flag or union slogans on employer-supplied clothing and equipment", all because of "Turnbull government restrictions on workers showing support for the CFMEU".

Yes'm, according to the diktat released by the Australian Building and Construction Commission – responsible for monitoring and promoting workplace relations in the Australian building and construction industry – from now on employers must be "more stringent", on the display of union logos and mottos. In fact, so stringent that, as noted by The Australian in its report, the presence of a single union logo might see them in breach, and such offending material, specifically includes "images generally attributed to, or associated with an organisation, such as the iconic symbol of the five white stars and white cross on the Eureka Stockade flag".

Friends, I ask you, does it get any more un-Australian than that – 163 years on from the most inspiring event in our history, of individuals rising against an unfair government, we have a modern government attempting to ban the individual's right to display the very symbol of that struggle.