Fact file: What would Scottish independence mean for the Australian flag?

Updated

Scotland has voted on whether to split from the United Kingdom and become an independent nation.

Opinion polls tracking the referendum have tightened in recent weeks, with heavy campaigning continuing on both sides. As the yes vote has gained ground, speculation that an independent Scotland would force a change to the Union Jack has increased.

That has led to questions over what independence might mean for the Australian flag.

ABC Fact Check investigates the relationship between the Union Jack and the Australian flag.

The Union Jack

Britain's Union Flag, popularly known as the "Union Jack", is made up of three heraldic crosses. The base is the cross of St Andrew, a diagonal white cross on a blue background. It is overlaid by the diagonal red cross of St Patrick on a white background. Foremost is the red horizontal cross of St George, also on a white background.

The cross of St Andrew represents Scotland, St Patrick Ireland and St George England. The Welsh dragon does not appear because when the first Union Flag was created in 1606 after James I united the thrones of England and Scotland, Wales was already united with England.

The current Union Jack dates from 1801, the date of the Act of Union with Ireland. It was the earlier Union Flag, without the Irish cross of St Patrick, that first flew over the fledgling British colony of New South Wales in 1788.

The Scottish flag

The Scottish government's plan for independence says the Queen will be the head of state in an independent Scotland, succeeded by her heirs and successors.

The Scottish national flag after independence would be the cross of St Andrew. The Scottish government says it will then be up to remaining parts of the United Kingdom to decide whether to retain the Union Jack.

When the Republic of Ireland gained independence from Britain in 1921, the cross of St Patrick was retained on the Union Jack. It is now seen to represent Northern Ireland, which stayed within the United Kingdom.

No plans to change

A recent survey from the UK's Flag Institute, which is described as "a national flag charity", found almost 65 per cent of respondents think the Union Jack should change if Scotland becomes independent.

The Union Jack was originally a royal flag, only to be flown on forts and castles. It has never been formally adopted as the "official" flag of the United Kingdom and no mechanism for changing it has ever been enacted through legislation.

Andrew Rosindell, a Conservative Party MP and chairman of the UK Parliament's Flags and Heraldry Committee, told Fact Check that the only mechanism that exists to alter the Union Jack would be by a proclamation of Her Majesty The Queen.

The Union Jack will not change... Scots will remain British, even if they vote for independence. Andrew Rosindell

The College of Arms is the royal authority which administers heraldry and flags on behalf of the monarch for the United Kingdom and parts of the Commonwealth including Australia.

David White, one of the Heralds at the college, told Fact Check: "It is a political decision - the Queen acting on the advice of ministers responsible to Parliament. It is not a decision for the College of Arms."

Mr White says there are no plans to change the Union Flag in the event of Scottish separation from the United Kingdom.

Mr Rosindell goes further. "The Union Jack will not change... Scots will remain British, even if they vote for independence," he told Fact Check.

Changing Australia's flag

Mr White also says changes to the Union Jack wouldn't automatically alter the Australian flag. "I can't see that this would have any effect on the version of the Union Flag which appears in the flag of the Commonwealth of Australia," he says.

Mr Rosindell says in the United Kingdom, unlike Australia, "there is no Flag Act and there is no precedent for a referendum on the national flag".

Australia's Flags Act of 1953 sets out the design of the Australian National Flag, including the colour, the placement of the Union Jack, and the size and number of stars. A 1998 amendment to the Flags Act requires that to change the Australian flag, a new design must be put to voters and win majority support.

A constitutional question

Constitutional law expert Professor George Williams from the University of New South Wales says the Flags Act could itself be changed by the federal Parliament to remove the referendum requirement. "The Act could be amended to allow the flag to be altered by an ordinary act of Parliament or by some other process," Professor Williams says. "This can occur because the flag is set by federal legislation and not the constitution."

Anne Twomey, professor of constitutional law at Sydney University, says the requirement in the Flags Act for a referendum to change the flag is "constitutionally ineffective". The Commonwealth Parliament cannot limit its legislative power in this way, Professor Twomey says.

"The Parliament could change the flag by enacting amending legislation passed in the ordinary way by both houses of Parliament," Professor Twomey says.

"The Union Jack on our flag is a statement of history. If Scotland became independent and if the British changed their flag, it wouldn't change our history."

Professor Twomey says there would be no need to change our flag unless the Australian people wanted to do so.

The bottom line

Even in the event of Scottish independence, a change in the Union Jack is not automatic, nor is it deemed likely by the experts Fact Check contacted.

A change in the Australian flag would only come about as a result of a national vote among Australians, or a change in Australian law, and not a change in the Union Jack.

Sources

Topics: world-politics, history, government-and-politics, australia, scotland, united-kingdom

First posted