Australian politicians spent more than £400,000 on flags in six months

There is no limit to the number of flags a politician is permitted to purchase

Australian flag (Getty Images)

Politicians in Australia spent over three quarters of a million dollars on flags in a six month period.

A total of $763,391.78 (£434,000) was spent on flags by MPs and senators between July 1 2015 and December 31 2015, according to the latest figures.

Matt Thistlethwaite, Labour MP for Kingsford Smith, topped the list spending just short of $23,000 during the period, according to ABC.

There is no limit to the number of flags a politician is permitted to purchase, as long as it is within the constraints of their budget, the Finance Department clarified.

Some have suggested the vast amount being spent on flags in the past few years can be attributed to increased terror threats, the Sydney Morning Herald claimed.

In the previous year, over the same six month period, politicians spent over $500,000, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The expenditure report has been released in the run up to Australia’s National Flag Day.

On 3 September every year, Australia commemorates the day on which the national flag was first flown.

As part of the celebrations people have been encouraged to join the Commonwealth Flag Network by Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister James McGrath, according to ABC.

Following Britain’s vote to leave the EU there have been increased calls to remove the Union Jack from the Australian flag.

Peter FitzSimons, the chairman of Australia’s republican movement, argued that "Great Britain" hardly exists and scrapping the monarchy and changing the flag would distance the country from the “divisive and horrible campaign as was Brexit”.

"From the moment that Brexit came through, social media came alive, with people saying 'this is ridiculous, let us be our own people, let us get away from this',” the Telegraph reported Mr FitzSimons as saying.