Not in the slightest. The British brought four of the pillars of our nation with them in 1788 – the English language, the rule of law under the common law, the Crown and our Judeo Christian values. From the middle of the nineteenth century they gave us self government under the Westminster system.

When we decided to federate in an “indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown... and under the Constitution” as the preamble to the Constitution act 1900 so eloquently puts it, the British allowed us to establish our nation. We have adapted and Australianised all of these, but just as we would not change our language there is no reason to reject our valuable institutions merely because they are of British origin. The Canadians, the New Zealanders, and to an extent the Americans do not.

It should be stressed, as the High Court found in 1999, in Sue v Hill, that the Australian Crown is a separate legal and constitutional institution from the British Crown, and for that matter the Canadian and New Zealand Crowns. What we have is what is well known in international law as a personal union, where one person wears two or more Crowns.

In the nineties, republicans conducted a major campaign, with support from sections of the media, to change the Australian Flag. It was not that they could agree on a new flag; it was as Paul Keating put it, the Australian Flag “gets up his nose.”

The fact is that the Australian flag has the overwhelming support of the Australian people who do not see the need to turn our back on our past and cast out the common  heritage of all Australians wherever we have come from.