Three senators put forward a motion to fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags during NAIDOC week have been denied.
Labor senators Malarndirri McCarthy and Patrick Dodson, and Greens senator Lidia Thorpe’s motion was voted down by 29 senators - with 28 senators for the motion.
Liberal senator Anne Ruston told the Senate chamber that the Australian flag was the only appropriate national flag to display in the upper house