The Australian flag became the centre of an extraordinary clash in parliament on Wednesday after senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Pauline Hanson were told to remove it from their shoulders during a heated chamber exchange.

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Price first wore the flag to mark Flag Day, celebrating 124 years since it was first flown. She declared to the Senate: “When we look at our flag, we remember our history in the round.”

“Yes, we remember the dark chapters, like the mistreatment of Indigenous Australians and returned Vietnam veterans, but we also recognise that our achievements and successes far outweigh our wrongdoings and failures.”

🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺 Everyday Australians do not want to see our national flag burned. Yet Labor and the Greens hijacked debate and silenced those who dared to defend it.

I stood up in the Senate yesterday to call out their disgraceful behaviour.

Watch and decide for yourself: pic.twitter.com/e3f3CtpHNP

— Jacinta Nampijinpa (@JNampijinpa) September 3, 2025

But her remarks were interrupted when Greens senator Nick McKim raised a point of order. “I do want to make the point that if it’s OK for Senator Nampjinpa Price to wrap herself in this flag, I would intend to wrap myself in a Palestinian flag and come into the chamber and exercise the same rights that Senator Nampijinpa Price is currently exercising,” McKim said.

Acting president of the Senate Slade Brockman intervened, telling Price: “In order not to set a precedent at this point, could I ask you please to finish your speech without the flag on your shoulders?”

Price shot back at McKim, saying: “So disappointing from the Greens, but also so typical. You can wear a keffiyeh in here, perhaps you should remove that article ... whenever you walk through these chambers for the benefit of all Australians ... snark all you like, it’s revolting.’’

BREAKING NEWS - Senators have been banned from wearing the Australian flag on the floor of the senate because of a complaint made by the anti-Australian Greens.#PaulineHanson #OneNation #AustralianFlag #Flag #Senate pic.twitter.com/h7P8XPguBq

— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) September 3, 2025

Hanson later joined the protest by draping herself in the Australian flag. She fumed: “It is not a prop. The Australian flag flies in our chamber,” before being forced to remove it as well.

Outside the chamber, Price doubled down on social media: “I’m proud to wear this flag, even though the Greens would push to have me remove it in the Senate, that just demonstrates just how un-Australian they are.”