Politics

Prime Minister Scott Morrison Is Wearing His Australian Flag Pin Upside Down, Uh Oh

It's an internationally-recognised distress signal.

by Sam Langford  17 September 2018
Scott Morrison Australia Day citizenship ceremonies.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison is sitting in Parliament right now with his Australian flag lapel pin upside down. If this seems like a mundane wardrobe error to you, think again, because flying a flag upside down is actually an internationally recognised distress signal.

Seriously — for hundreds of years, flying a nation’s flag upside down was a commonly used maritime distress signal, though it’s fallen out of usage given that many countries’ flags are very confusing upside down (see Japan’s flag, which looks exactly the same upside down, and the Indonesian flag, which looks like the Polish flag upside down).

Still, many countries still recognise an upside-down flag as a sign of distress. The flag code of the United States cautions that “the flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property”. See also the House of Cards logo, which similarly features an inverted flag.

Australia similarly has many Solemn and Grave rules for the use of its flag, which are listed on the website of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. They include exhortations to “raise the flag briskly and lower it ceremoniously”, “only fly the flag at night when it is illuminated”, and, crucially, “not fly the flag upside down, even as a signal of distress”. Seems like maybe ScoMo hasn’t read his own department website, but it’s easy to miss this kind of stuff when you roll a sitting PM in the middle of a term and have to scramble to take the reins.

Anyway, we can only imagine the distress and danger that prompted ScoMo’s wardrobe malfunction today. Who knows, maybe he’s finally realised all the ways his government is fucking over this country and is contemplating a prompt resignation? We can dream.