Why song and dance over the national anthem is a red flag for me

October 31, 2026 — 5:00am

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Look, when they do finally manage to hold an actual storm in a teacup, and we get to send an entry, the current kerfuffle over some of the Jillaroos not singing the Australian national anthem – while also being draped in the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander flag – will be our best chance for gold.

Yup, ideally a national team would enthusiastically belt out the one anthem – one they all loved  – while also getting misty-eyed over the one flag, beloved by all.

But the simple truth is three-fold:

We Australians simply don’t have an anthem like that. Some love Girt, true. But for a huge swath of the population, no doubt including many Jillaroos, it’s a lot on the “meh” side of things. (Our anthem should be I Am, You Are, We Are Australian, but don’t get me started.)

Many, including your correspondent, don’t like our flag. In the words of no less than former Prime Minister Paul Keating, “No great country has the flag of another country in the corner of their flag”.

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Not unreasonably, visiting comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said it looks like “Great Britain at night”. As it happens, I feel both things, strongly. And if I was of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island heritage, I’d likely feel it more strongly still – to the point where it might even feel like a flag of British occupation and invasion. Who the hell are the rest of us to say they shouldn’t feel like that? If they do, so be it.

One thing we can and should be misty-eyed about is that we live in a country where our patriotism is not forced. It is not one size fits all, and we are mostly free to be. The Jillaroos in question have earned the right to wear the national jersey, and expressing themselves in this manner is emblematic of coming from a nation where freedom is more than an arcane concept. Live, and let live.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Fire at will, see if I care.

Saving best until last

“It has been 24 years since Australia won the Bledisloe Cup,” Barry Wooldridge of Harden wrote in a letter to the editor of the SMH last week. “I turn 86 this week. Should I be getting anxious?”

Sir, I write back on behalf of Australian rugby. No, you need not be anxious. All will be fine in your lifetime. Against that, we ask that you get plenty of exercise, eat healthily, and get regular........

© The Sydney Morning Herald