Eureka flag 'hijacked by racists'

There are union calls to stop abuse of the Eureka flag after an Australian of the Year raised fears it could become a swastika-like symbol of racism.

Construction union boss Kevin Reynolds agreed with Australian of the Year Warwick Thornton, from the Northern Territory, who said the symbol was sometimes used as a racist nationalistic emblem.

Mr Reynolds accused groups such as the Australian Nationalist Movement and participants in the 2005 Cronulla race riots of using it to give radical views a cloak of legitimacy.

He said the flag, first flown at the 1854 Eureka Stockade rebellion in Ballarat, should not be hijacked from its primary role as a union symbol.

"The Eureka flag doesn't belong to racists," he said.

"People have their own uses for it but primarily it is a symbol of the working-class struggle."

Thornton, a renowned filmmaker, called on the public to consider what the flag means to them, considering the Southern Cross constellation had for 40,000 years been a beacon to guide Aboriginals across the country.

"We don't want to turn the Southern Cross into a swastika, that's bloody important," Thornton, writer and director of the film Samson and Delilah, said.

"We should think about that on Australia Day and the bigger issue of what it represents and why is it happening."

Professor Greg Craven, vice-chancellor at the Australian Catholic University, said racist links had destroyed the true meaning of the Southern Cross, which was about dignified rebellion.

He said 20 years ago, the Southern Cross rivalled the Australian flag as a national symbol but it was now tainted by racism and appeared on bumper stickers with racist slogans.

"The Southern Cross is becoming a symbol not of unity but of exclusion," Professor Craven said.

He said the union movement also politicised the symbol since it was first used in the 1850s.

The Eureka Stockade was not exclusively about the working class but also the middle class, he said.

Professor Craven said there were similar racist connotations to the St George flag in Britain that is sometimes confiscated at soccer games amid fears it would promote racist clashes.