Tom Elliott:
I’m going to say I reckon any of them would do a good job. Our next guest, Director of Research at the Institute of Public Affairs and author of In History’s Page: An Anthem to United Australians. Morgan Begg, good morning.
Morgan Begg:
Morning, Tom. Good to be with you.
Tom Elliott:
Do you happen to have a personal favourite? I mean, I just played you the actual anthem and then three of the most popular alternatives. Do any of them particularly grab you?
Morgan Begg:
Oh, well, I must admit I still have a very big soft spot for God Save the King. We are a monarchy after all and it’s an entirely appropriate anthem. But through going through this research, I’ve actually come away with a much higher opinion of Advance Australia Fair. I think it’s a great tune and it’s got a great message which Australians need right now.
Tom Elliott:
Well, it was interesting. I’ve got your press release about this. So 77% of Australians agree or strongly agree that the National Anthem of Advance Australia Fair should be retained. 76% say that the anthem unites us as Australians and 71% say it should be performed at public events instead of Welcome to Country ceremonies. So that’s a pretty strong vote of confidence, isn’t it?
Morgan Begg:
Yeah, exactly right. And it’s quite interesting because often when you hear the topic of the national anthem discussed in the sort of commentariat, it’s usually framed in terms of, “Oh, the national anthem is a colonial anthem. Oh, it’s not a good tune. Oh, it uses archaic language.” But actually, when you ask everyday Australians, they’re overwhelmingly supportive of retaining the anthem and they believe it unites us, which is so interesting that it’s actually consistent with Australian opinions on other key national symbols. So you poll opinions about Australia Day or the Australian flag, you’ll get roughly comparable numbers. People overwhelmingly appreciate these national symbols.
Tom Elliott:
Yeah. So why do we have this, I’ll call them a noisy elite that hates the concept of Australia, describes it as settler and colonialists, doesn’t like the flag because it has the Union Jack on it, doesn’t like the anthem because, well, I don’t know, they just don’t like it? Why do they seem to get so much attention when three quarters of us think all those symbols are fine?
Morgan Begg:
Yeah. I mean, it’s such a good question. Why does this opinion have so much weight along the sort of elite of society and why does the media or the traditional media give it so much airtime? And of course, the underlying ideology behind these attacks is a fundamentally decolonialist idea, which is an attack on these symbols in order to wage a broader war on Australia’s history. So fundamentally, they want to divide people. But again, why is this given so much airtime in the media? Why are we not listening to the mainstream of society on this issue? It boggles the mind.
Tom Elliott:
Well, it’s interesting. When I do talk to those elites about the anthem, it’s usually because I want to argue with them. I just say, “Keep what we’ve got. National symbols, they’re easy to chuck away, but hard to recreate. And the ones we have I think are an appropriate representation of modern day Australia.” Well, thank you, Morgan. Morgan Begg there from the Institute of Public Affairs. He’s written a piece called In History’s Page: An Anthem to Unite Australians.
And look, as I said, when I was, on grade four, what are you? 10? I didn’t vote for it, but I’ve grown to like Advance Australia Fair. My late father, John Elliot, he loved God Save the Queen. He used to insist that if we sang the anthem, that’s what we would sing at home. I don’t know why we sang it, but he thought that was the correct one.
This transcript of Morgan Begg talking on 3AW Mornings with Tom Elliott from 21 May 2026 has been edited for clarity.
