On National Flag Day, 3 September 2008, it is appropriate to recall that the leader of the Australian Labor Party, Dr HV Evatt, told the House of Representatives in 1953 that our flag is not only "a very beautiful flag."

He continued: "It is probably the most beautiful flag in the world."

"Australia is the first nation in history to not only write its own constitution, but also the first to choose its own flag in a competition where 32,000 entries were received from a population of around 3 million," John Brett of the Toowoomba National Flag Association says in a message for National Flag Day.

Pointing out that only five other flags are older than ours, he says that the Australian Flag tells the world more about our nation than any other flag.

"Most are now colour patches" he says. "Our flag is highly symbolic."

"The stars of the Southern Cross constellation tell the world where we are.

"The seven pointed Federal Star tells the world we are a federation of six states looking after a number of territories, represented by the seventh point.

Ivor Evans, one of the flag's designers, intended the Southern Cross to refer also to the four moral virtues ascribed to the four main stars by Dante: justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude.

"It is the Union Jack that transmits our position in time, which was the original source of strength and stability," John Brett continued.

"Our language and all the institutions and methods that we adopted gave Australia a tremendous start, over one hundred years ago."

He referred to the great gifts of British settlement, the rule of law, the common law, the English language, the Crown providing leadership beyond politics, our Judeo-Christian principles recalled in the three crosses on the Flag, and parliamentary democracy under the Westminster system.