The Australian government has voted against a motion to hang the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags in parliament.
The two flags have joined the Australian flag in being flown outside the Canberra powerhouse during NAIDOC week, which seeks to raise awareness for Aboriginal and Islanders issues and celebrates Australia's indigenous history before European settlers arrived in 1770.
There have been calls for the same three flags to be hanged inside, however it looks like that won't happen; at least in the Senate. The motion was voted down 28-29.
The government said the Senate wasn't the place to hang these two flags, with Social Services Minister Anne Ruston saying: "There are many places and circumstances to appropriately display the flags of our nation, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags,
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"The government believes that the Australian national flag which represents all Australians is the only appropriate flag to be flown in the Senate chamber."
The motion requested the flags be set up three weeks after it was a success. The decision to vote it down has sparked a huge outcry.
Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe said in a statement in the Senate: "Can I remind you all that we are on stolen land and the Aboriginal flag represents the oldest continually living culture in the world.
"My people have been here, Aboriginal people have been here, Wurundjeri and Ngunnawal people have been here for thousands and thousands and thousands of generations.
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"So the Aboriginal flag is what we identify with, what we connect with, just as you connect with the colonial flag that you love and you appeal to."
Labor Senator for the Northern Territory, Malarndirri McCarthy added: "Why is it in this week of NAIDOC, could the government be so mean spirited. The government has actually had this motion before them for three months?
"All three flags are flying outside Parliament House during NAIDOC Week, yet not inside the two houses of Parliament."
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Labour MP Linda Burney also said: "The Government has voted against Labor's motion to hang the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in the parliament, right in the middle of #NAIDOC2020."
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags were recognised as flags of Australia back in 1953. Proponents of the motion say that should be reason alone to fly them in Australia's parliament.
Featured Image Credit: PA