Most of the people I talk to feel the same way about the flag as they do about the republic... basically that its a good thing and we should make the change eventually but that there are lots of more pressing priorities.
As it stands, it is not so bad that there is any real impetus to change it. I can't see that changing until something coalesces support - and then you'll have to find an option that everyone can live with. Of course, Mr Barns will be decrying the national anthem next - 'girt' indeed!
;-)

Don't forget to throw out bp and all of the other parasites attached to us. What a laugh. I currently pay a little more than 0.50c per litre here in Indo for petrol, and for a 15kg clean weight bottle of gas for the stove which lasts more than a month for a family of three who mostly eat in, less then $AU10.

Grow a brain, grow up and do it for yourselves Australia.

I would love to know how much this country hemorrhages each year as a result of being too lazy and too stupid to do certain things for ourselves.

We must pretty much have all the resources we need, potentially all the intellectual property, but .. Jesus .. makes me want to puke.

" ... But we are told that everything has to get more expensive and that we have to work longer for less reward in more crowded cities. .. " JoeH

Corruption in all of its guises is a lazy person's business.

Hmmm .. here's an example .. a fancy super sharp silicon knife, for carving up turkeys. The silicon sands are from Oz. It is sent to red chinese sweat shops to be stamped out. Then they go to Japan to be sharpened and by the time it comes back, we pay $AU100+ for one of them.

Doesn't impress me from a security perspective if we can't even make a good knife. Oh, that reminds me .. we've got Noordin Top's ex Mrs (1 of them anyway) in the local court at the moment. It appears that she cooperated with the interrogators and is now happy but keeping coy with the media. And not just her, but associates as well. ..hmmm .. the hunt goes on it seems - but hopefully they'll try and catch more next time round instead of just wasting them pre-examination.

Oh, re Jihad one of the local clerics stated something like,

" ... it is important for problems like when you are overrun by the Dutch. ... "

Of course, Indos refer to us by the same name as they do the Dutch. We need to do more work on that, through say, AUSAID, or otherwise, why waste our money? Cough!

After all, we assisted them at the UN to get rid of the Dutch post WWII, who even after a good dose of the Nazis for their trouble didn't get it.

Do we really deserve to be classified by way of a derogatory term after extending the hand of friendship. The reality of course is that most Indos do not know this, because the Indo establishment only wants them to beleive that it was by the efforts of their own "Freedom Fighters" alone that they achieved independence.

Diplomacy sometimes needs to be conducted out in the open in my view.

There is much talk here about what the flag is about; or what it stands for.
But little of how the flag actually looks visually and how it looks against other flags.
Visually the Australian flag is not particularly striking,it looks exactly like the the many other pacific nation flags that where colonised by the British.
A striking original flag that won’t be confused with other flags is a great idea.
So why knock Ray when he is just stating the blindly obvious.
Basically was commonwealth brand name England, the fact that we still have it and people seemto love it shows the unoriginality and lack of imagination of those Australians.
To be original means to be bold and to recognise our difference in the world, its a sad fact that Australia just isn't bold enough to take that step.