Melbourne radio host Tom Elliott clashes with Socialist Victoria member over calls for Union Jack to be stripped from Australian flag

Melbourne radio host Tom Elliott has clashed with a Socialist Victoria member over a call for the Union Jack to be stripped from the Australian flag.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) released its action “blueprint” ahead of Labor’s National Conference in Adelaide.

One section of the “working-class agenda” called for the removal of “symbols of oppression” to advance solidarity with Indigenous people.

“We need to strip away the constant reminders of the old ruling class and colonial empire,” the document read.

“Symbols of oppression, like the Union Jack on our flag and offensive colonial statues, must be removed from public life.”

Socialist Victoria member Jasmine Duff told 3AW host Tom Elliott she is “all for getting rid of the butcher’s apron”.

Elliott then challenged her by asking what the alternative to the Union Jack would be.

“I think if you want a murderous, colonial country to have its flag on the Australian one, whoever wins the World Cup, whack them on our flag. Go all the way if you’re going to do it,” Ms Duff replied.

Elliott hit back, “So, we put the Spanish flag on our flag?”

“The idea that we have these colonial countries that actually have nothing to do with working-class people in our country … and then we say, ‘oh let’s stick their flag on ours’, it’s crazy,” Ms Duff said.

Elliott then countered, “But you live in this country, and you speak English, you are the beneficiary of this so-called evil colonial empire?”

“If you look at Britain, and what it has done, the amount of massacres it has carried out, think about those people,” Ms Duff said.

Elliott then pointed out the UK was one of the first countries to abolish slavery.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil meanwhile refused to rule out the possibility that the Albanese government will consider removing the Union Jack from the Australian flag.

Ms O’Neil declined to confirm whether the government supported scrapping the Union Jack, ahead of debate over the flag at the Labor Party National Conference.

“It’s not something that I’ve had a moment to think about,” Ms O’Neil told Channel Seven’s Sunrise on Wednesday.

“I’m telling you, as Housing Minister, I don’t spend my time thinking about the national flag… My personal view is no. But I’m not going to get into a debate about that.”