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The death of Queen Elizabeth II last year means Australians can now talk about becoming a republic, says English singer/songwriter Billy Bragg.
Billy Bragg, also known as the Bard from Barking.
Currently touring Australia, the political activist is celebrating 40 years since the release of his first album. He appeared with ABC staff on the picket line outside the company’s head office in Ultimo in Sydney on Wednesday and sang Woody Guthrie’s Union Maid to express his solidarity with their cause.
Seeing the Union Jack on the Australian flag during his visit is strange, says Bragg. “Being an independent country looks like you have a flag that doesn’t have someone else’s flag in it ... We’re trying to get away from that empire thing,” he says.
“For those of us in our 60s and 70s and older, we have to accept there’s a new generation out there who are making the world now, and we can’t expect the world to stay exactly where we thought it was.”
Waking up to hear his friend of 20 years Anthony Albanese had become Prime Minister last year was quite something, the 65-year-old said, but seeing Albanese quote his lyrics in his new job was a surprise.
Anthony Albanese and Billy Bragg, in a photo shared by Albanese on Twitter in 2017.Credit:Twitter - @AlboMP
Bragg made the comments while speaking on the latest episode of Good Weekend Talks – a “magazine for your ears” featuring conversations between journalists from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and the people captivating Australia right now.
Hosting this chat was senior culture writer Kerrie O’Brien, who leads a discussion about everything from life in the United Kingdom after Brexit – “It’s like we soiled ourselves,” Bragg says – to the fact the world will be watching as we vote on introducing an Indigenous Voice to parliament. As an Englishman, Bragg argues he has “skin in the game”, and sees this as an opportunity to “right a terrible, historic wrong”.