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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-05-17 Daily Xml
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Bird Emblem of South Australia

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:31): I rise today to bring to the attention of the house some correspondence my office has received, and I am hazarding a guess that every electorate office represented in this place has received it. It is from a Mr Jock McLoughlin of Forest Place Lifestyle Village, 9 Happy Valley Drive, Happy Valley. I take from that that Mr McLoughlin is getting towards more elderly years. He is quite particular and pedantic about our state emblem. In September last year, he wrote:

Dear Peter,

I am a proud South Australian who is writing to you about our State bird emblem: The Piping Shrike. There is clearly much confusion about the identity of the emblem. [A] recent…advertising campaign featuring the Piping Shrike is perpetuating the confusion because they say the bird is not a Magpie, when it is.

Mr McLoughlin argues:

…it is important to clarify the bird's identity, in the interests of our State. The bird is, in fact, the White Backed Australian Magpie.

Mr McLoughlin writes a blog, most of which is dedicated to this. This month, he wrote again:

Dear Mr Peter Treloar,

I have written to you previously about our State Badge and Flag that feature the 'Piping Shrike'. There is no doubt that there is significant confusion about the identity of the 'Piping Shrike'. Many South Australians incorrectly think the bird is the Magpie Lark, when it is, in fact, the White Backed Magpie.

The worthwhile campaign promoting South Australia, which includes a man in a costume claiming to be the Piping Shrike, has unfortunately made things worse because the caricature does not portray a White Backed Magpie but rather the Magpie Lark. The inclusion of the caricature in [the most recent] advertising [campaign] further confounds the uncertainty about the bird's identity.

Mr McLoughlin writes a blog on this, as I said. His blog includes comprehensive information, which all should read, about the history of the piping shrike and also about the flawed piping shrike campaigns. Mr McLoughlin writes that the piping shrike is an important part of our history to date, and it is important that we intervene to stop further misrepresentation and correct the misleading information about our state badge and flag. Mr McLoughlin writes in his blog:

Many people seem to be unaware which bird is South Australia's emblem. Officially the bird is the 'Piping Shrike'. However, there are no birds with that name in Australia.

I did not know that. He continues:

The emblem is referred to as: the Piping Strike, Murray Magpie, Magpie Lark, Australian Magpie and White Backed Magpie, amongst other names. The range of names for South Australia's...emblem simply alerts us to the degree of confusion about the emblem's identity.

A recent advertising campaign compounds the confusion because they do not know which bird is South Australia's emblem. He continues:

Also, the use of the term 'Piping Shrike' is partly responsible for the confusion. As mentioned earlier, there are currently no birds in Australia with the common name Piping Shrike. While acknowledging the long term use of the term Piping Shrike to describe our State emblem we must now clarify which bird it is. In my opinion, the continued use of Piping Shrike name is flawed, especially when children are being fed misleading information…If this situation is not remedied, it could isolate the Australian Magpie from South Australia because of inconsistent Australia-wide naming. Common sense should prevail. It seems ridiculous that our State would think it acceptable to have our Magpies known as Piping Strikes, while the rest of Australia calls them by their recognised title. It is unfortunate that this oversight has not been amended during the many years that it has been featured.

I would like to thank Mr Jock McLoughlin on behalf of all members in this place for his correspondence and for pointing out the confusion that he sees with regard to the naming of our state emblem. I hope this contribution has gone some way at least to putting his concerns on the record and clarifying the situation for all South Australians, particularly those children who need to be well across this information.

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