The federal government’s announcement that it has “freed” the Aboriginal flag is misleading and has been seriously misinterpreted, according to the company which still holds the exclusive licence to make Aboriginal flags for sale.
“All is not what it appears,” according to Carroll & Richardson Flagworld, which is challenging reports about the government’s $20m deal to acquire copyright of the flag design and buy out some of the licences to reproduce it, which were previously held by non-Indigenous companies.
“The government’s announcement is misleading and confusing and does not ‘free the flag’ except for its use on clothing, badges, pins etc, or its reproduction in digital formats and on playing surfaces,” Wayne Gregory, the managing director of Carroll & Richardson Flagworld, said in a statement.
Gregory told Guardian Australia the announcement had confused the community.
“As far as the flag’s concerned, it’s really business as usual. The only difference is the royalties will be paid to the government, which the government’s already indicated they’re going to use to fund programs for Naidoc, which is perfectly acceptable,” he said.
“But what they’ve done is created the illusion that everything’s going to be free”.
A Morrison government spokesperson said its media release announcing that the flag design would be freely available did acknowledge Flagworld’s continuing licence for the commercial production of flags and bunting – but this may not have been widely reported.
“We appreciate Flagworld’s concern that the details of their continuing world-wide exclusive licence have not been widely reported by the media,” the spokesperson said. But they did not address Flagworld’s claims that the Coalition had misled the public by saying the flag was now “free.”
The Monday release quoted the prime minister, Scott Morrison, as saying: “We’ve freed the Aboriginal flag for Australians.”
“Throughout the negotiations, we have sought to protect the integrity of the Aboriginal flag, in line with Harold Thomas’ wishes. I thank everyone involved for reaching this outcome, putting the flag in public hands.”
It has struck a $20m deal to assume copyright of the design from its creator, Luritja artist Harold Thomas, after two-and-a-half years of “extremely complicated” negotiations.
Questions have since been asked about its future custodianship now that copyright rests with the commonwealth, as well as how much of the $20m was paid to the non-Indigenous businesses involved, WAM Clothing and Gifts Mate, both companies associated with Gold Coast businessman Ben Wooster.
Wooster’s previous company, Birubi Arts, was fined $2.3m by the federal court after it was found to have breached consumer law by selling fake Aboriginal art.
Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy and Greens senator Lidia Thorpe, who were part of a select committee which examined the status of the Aboriginal flag in 2020, have both said they intend to ask the government for more details about the deal at the next Senate estimates hearings in February.
Campaigners who fought to “free” the Aboriginal flag have said previously that while questions remain about its future custodianship, the current arrangement is “as good as we’re going to get in terms of freeing the Aboriginal flag”.
“My grandkids, my great-grandkids, will have the Aboriginal flag in their lives, uniting them and supporting their culture and making them feel safe in community,” Laura Thompson, convener of the #freetheflag campaign, said on Tuesday.
The #freetheflag movement began after Thompson’s business, Clothing the Gaps, was served with a cease and desist notice from WAM.
Thompson said it was a relief that private companies were now “out of the picture” but some questions remained.
“The fact that the Aboriginal flag was controlled, and privately owned, is just absurd,” she said.
In 1995, the governor general proclaimed it along with the Torres Strait Islander flag. Other claimants came forward asserting they were the artist behind it but in 1997 the federal court officially recognised Thomas as the sole author, giving him the ability to assign licences.
By 2019, amid mounting distress and confusion over who was able to use the design freely, a parliamentary inquiry was set up to look into the copyright and licensing arrangements. Its final report labelled WAM Clothing’s actions as “heavy-handed”.
The minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, told ABC Radio on Tuesday that “the benefits in the long term far outweigh what we expended”.
“It’s about giving back the flag to be freely used,” he said.
The image of the flag can be reproduced on websites, on apparel such as sports jerseys and shirts, in paintings and other artworks, used digitally and in any other medium without having to ask for permission or pay a fee.
Gregory said he has already noticed a rise in online merchandise, some of it “shoddy”, featuring the flag design. He is concerned there may be more to come now that the assumption is that the flag is “free”.
“Too many things get butchered these days, get pirated, and this flag is far too important to be treated the way many other products are. So we’ve sought to close down as many people as we can who do it,” Gregory said.
“But that’s the confusing message and I don’t think the government helped because most of the quotes were all about freeing everything. And that’s … potentially misleading.”
