From Australia to New Caledonia, conservative politicians are arguing about flags, opposing public display of symbols of indigenous sovereignty. “I’m very strongly of the belief that we are a country united under one flag,” Peter Dutton told Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News a few weeks before the Australian election. “If we’re asking people to identify with different flags, no other country does that and we are dividing our country unnecessarily. We should have respect for the Indigenous flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag, but they are not our national flags.” The most obvious flaw in his argument is that the Aboriginal flag and Torres Strait Islander flag were both proclaimed as flags of Australia nearly thirty years ago, in July 1995, under section 5 of the Flags Act. Dutton’s predecessor as Liberal leader, Scott Morrison, went a step further in 2022 when he arranged for the copyright of the red, yellow and black Aboriginal flag to be transferred to the Commonwealth of Australia to allow wider public use. During the Australian elections, Dutton’s attempt at culture wars backfired, and the Liberal / National Party coalition suffered a stinging defeat on 3 May. As the Australian Labor Party was returned to office, Dutton lost his own seat of Dickson, adding to the turmoil within the conservative parties. In neighbouring New Caledonia — a French Pacific dependency just 1500 kilometres off the coast of Queensland — a similar debate has erupted over the question of whether two flags should fly at the Congress, town halls, schools and other public institutions. French control over New Caledonia came with the raising of the French bleu-blanc-rouge tricolour at Balade, as the Melanesian islands were annexed in 1853. To this day, opponents of independence proudly brandish French flags as presidents and prime ministers arrive from Paris. The flag of Kanaky, by contrast, was adopted at the September 1984 congress of the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, or FLNKS, New Caledonia’s main independence coalition. It was first raised by FLNKS president Jean-Marie Tjibaou on 1 December 1984, the day the independence movement declared the provisional government of Kanaky. The FLNKS described the multi-coloured flag as “three horizontal bands of which the colours are, from bottom to top: green, which represents the land of our ancestors, the wealth of the soil and hope, the country; then red, which symbolises the blood that’s been spilt for the struggle, socialism and the unity of the people; blue, which represents the sky and the Pacific environment, the sovereignty of the Kanak nation in the Pacific; then towards the flagpole, a golden circle which represents the sun, on which is drawn in black the case [traditional hut] with its flèche faîtière [totemic ridgepole].” For many Loyalists who want the Pacific colony to remain within the French Republic, the flag is at best a partisan symbol, and at worst an incitement to violence (a feeling exacerbated by the six months of riots and clashes between Kanak protestors and French police that wracked New Caledonia in 2024). To deal with this tension, the 1998 Noumea Accord — a political framework agreement that has governed New Caledonia for more than a quarter of a century — proposed the creation of new national symbols reflecting a “common destiny” that could unite communities in New Caledonia. But it wasn’t until 2007 that New Caledonia’s citizenship minister Déwé Gorodé established a committee to develop those symbols. She announced a competition to choose new designs for banknotes, a national anthem to replace the French Marseillaise, and a motto to reflect both indigenous Kanak identity and the multicultural nature of the community. This process led to the adoption of a new motto and hymn for the islands. The motto Terre de Parole, Terre de Partage (Land of the Word, land of sharing) was joined by the anthem Soyons Unis, Devenons Frères (Let us be united and become brothers), composed by seven young members of the Melodia children’s choir. The committee also agreed on new designs for Pacific franc banknotes (the CFP denomination used across the francophone Pacific). The new, brightly coloured plastic notes feature a range of local flowers, birds, turtles and fish. Only the rarely used 10,000 CFP note includes some recognition of the Melanesian history of the islands, with images of the Kanak case (traditional hut) and the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, a cultural and art space in Noumea named after the assassinated FLNKS leader. Choosing a new flag and name for the country nevertheless remained contentious. “We soon came to a consensus on the anthem, motto and currency, to reflect our Kanak heritage, but also the commitment that all members of the community have made to build a common destiny,” Déwé Gorodé told me at the time. “However we were unable to agree on the name of the country and the flag, so we’ve put those aside for the moment. These two things are intensely political, and behind this discussion lies the fundamental issue of national sovereignty.” The flag debate was pushed ahead by conservative politician Pierre Frogier in a February 2010 speech. As leader of the anti-independence party Rassemblement, Frogier proposed that both flags should be displayed at public buildings as a gesture towards reconciliation between independence supporters and opponents. In July that year, French prime minister François Fillon flew to Noumea for a joint flag-raising outside the French High Commission. “I have the distinct honour as the president of the Kanak Customary Senate to present our flag to you on this historic day,” said customary leader Julien Boinemoa, “where it will officially rise in the New Caledonian sky, after having been long contested by a part of the population because it symbolised the Kanak nationalist cause.” The following month, Frogier joined leaders of the largest independence party Union Calédonienne to jointly raise both flags outside the Southern Provincial Assembly, which is dominated by anti-independence politicians. Within a few months, independence supporters were buoyed by the sight of their flag flying at town halls, public schools and government offices across the islands. But the sight of the flag flying in anti-independence strongholds in the Southern Province angered some French loyalists. Frogier’s initiative had unleashed a debate that has continued for fifteen years. Philippe Gomès, leader of the anti-independence party Calédonie Ensemble and a decade-long critic of “two flags flying,” wants a single, newly designed flag “adopted through a definitive consensus that brings New Caledonians together.” He professes to respect the FLNKS flag “for what it is, but I do not see the shared future. Therefore, it is neither legitimate in substance nor in form.” The issue came to a head in 2021, when independence politicians gained a six–five majority in New Caledonia’s multi-party government. In July that year, Louis Mapou became the first Kanak independence leader to serve as president of New Caledonia in nearly forty years. As one initiative to promote a “common destiny” uniting all New Caledonians, his government proposed that driver’s licences should include both the French tricolour and the flag of Kanaky. Two years later, the Mapou government announced the “the FLNKS flag” would appear alongside the national tricolour on the credit-card-size license. The decree elicited a predictably fierce response from the anti-independence Générations NC party, led by Nina Julié and Nicolas Metzdorf (who serves as one of two New Caledonian representatives in the French National Assembly). Six of its members, including Julié and Metzdorf, lodged a case before the Administrative Tribunal of New Caledonia to reverse the decision. In a July 2024 ruling, the tribunal annulled the government’s decree on the grounds that the flag of Kanaky — unlike the anthem, motto and banknotes — was not one of the identity symbols officially adopted by New Caledonia. “This ruling also implies,” it said, “that the Government of New Caledonia must circulate, from 1 January 2025, a new model of driver’s license without the disputed flag, with a penalty of 100,000 CFP francs [A$1450] for each day that the new licence is not circulated.” Later that year, before the ruling could be implemented, Mapou was defeated in a no-confidence motion and replaced by Alcide Ponga, current president of the conservative Rassemblement party. In Ponga’s new multi-party government, however, responsibility for the transport sector fell to Gilbert Tyuienon, a veteran member of the Union Calédonienne party. The independence politician simply refused to counter-sign the paperwork that would order transport officials to remove the contentious flag. Once again, Générations NC sought enforcement of the administrative tribunal’s ruling, this time with a successful appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal in Paris. An April 2025 ruling demanded government action and payment of the outstanding fine, which amounted to 10.7 million Pacific francs (A$155,000). The court also increased the fine to 150,000 francs for each day until the government ordered transport officials to develop a new format for the license. Having angered the independence movement, Nina Julié then proceeded to attack President Ponga, even though his Rassemblement party collaborates with the anti-independence Loyalist bloc. In a public polemic, she demanded that Ponga initiate legal action against Tyuienon so that “he personally assumes the payment of the penalty resulting from his refusal to enforce the law.” Her public attack angered Rassemblement official Xavier Rossard, who replied that “as we negotiate the institutional future of New Caledonia, the unity of supporters of France should not depend on issues like the driving license.” Since February, France’s Overseas Minister Manuel Valls has been meeting with New Caledonian political leaders to forge a new political statute to replace the 1998 Noumea Accord. As well as longstanding differences between the FLNKS and anti-independence parties over self-determination and sovereignty, tensions have sharpened among the parties that wish to remain in the French Republic. Like Peter Dutton’s remarks about the Aboriginal flag, the public polemics about the driver’s licence seem less about the symbols themselves and more about positioning in the lead-up to the next elections — in this case New Caledonia’s provincial polls scheduled for 30 November. The Loyalist bloc, led by Southern Province president Sonia Backès and Générations NC leader Nicolas Metzdorf, have refused to accept French proposals for a new shared sovereignty, even though smaller anti-independence parties have been willing to continue the discussions on a pathway to independence. When the Loyalists forced the breakdown of negotiations in mid-May, Metzdorf stormed: “We have been clear from the beginning. We will never accept independence, independence in association, or a trajectory towards independence.” A quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, divisions continue within settler-colonial states — from Australia to New Caledonia and beyond — over colonial history and Indigenous sovereignty. New Caledonia’s strident debate over a small piece of plastic highlights the depth of unresolved issues in this group of islands colonised in the nineteenth century. The next tribunal hearing on the driver’s licence will be held in June, but the debate over which flag should fly — and which should fall — will continue. This article appeared first on Inside Story.