NSW opposition leader Luke Foley says flying the Aboriginal flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge would be as unifying as Cathy Freeman’s Olympic lap in 2000.

February 2, 2018

Permanently flying the Aboriginal flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge would be as unifying as Cathy Freeman’s lap of honour after winning gold at the 2000 Olympics, the NSW opposition says.

Labor leader Luke Foley says the gesture would unite Australia but his pledge to fly the flag if elected in 2019 sparked an angry backlash on Friday.

Shock-jock Alan Jones argues Mr Foley has dug his own political grave with the pledge.

“Why is Mr Foley representing the concerns of the piddling minority?” Mr Jones said in a Tweet.

Mr Foley brushed off the criticism stating: “I understand Alan has to roll out of bed and find something to be angry about.”

The opposition leader argues the Aboriginal flag is already a fixture across NSW.

“This is about a unifying gesture, another step – a small step but a significant step – on that road we have to walk together … the road of reconciliation,” Mr Foley told reporters. 

The debate was kicked off by young Kamilaroi woman Cheree Toka in 2016 following her first Harbour Bridge climb.

Her online campaign to have the flag flying on top of the Coathanger 365 days a year – rather just 15 days a year as is the case now for Australia Day and NAIDOC and reconciliation weeks – has attracted almost 75,000 signatures.

Ms Toka, who met with Mr Foley earlier this week, wants to discuss the matter with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian but her requests for a meeting have so far been rebuffed.

A spokesman for the largest representative group of Aboriginal people in western NSW says flying the flag would generate a constructive conversation about reconciliation.

“There is a lot of positive stuff that can come out of it that can help take reconciliation forward,” Murdi Paaki Regional Enterprise Corporation chief executive Paul Newman told AAP.

When asked her position on flying the Aboriginal flag year-round, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Sarah Mitchell would only say the coalition was responsible for the flag first flying on the bridge.

She also noted the flag flies permanently at the NSW parliament and Government House.

Former Premier Barry O’Farrell, who was in power in 2013 when the Aboriginal flag was first raised atop the bridge on Australia Day, says he supports it flying there permanently.