Divergent perspectives exist on Australia’s national flag designs.

The former Wallaby and husband of TV host Lisa Wilkinson shared a proposed redesign of the nation’s flag featuring the Southern Cross with the Aboriginal flag in the space currently occupied by the Union Jack earlier this year.

FitzSimons retweeted the proposed change, included the caption: ‘This would at least be a step in the right direction,’ in January.

FitzSimons chairs The Australian Republican movement, which waited just 17 minutes to issue a statement after the Queen’s death to push its own agenda.

After brief condolences, the organisation noted Her Majesty ‘respected the self-determination of the Australian people’ in a thinly veiled reference to the republic.

‘The Queen backed the right of Australians to become a fully independent nation during the referendum on an Australian republic in 1999, saying that she has “always made it clear that the future of the Monarchy in Australia is an issue for the Australian people and them alone to decide, by democratic and constitutional means”,’ it said.

Despite his organisation alluding to the need for a republic, FitzSimons himself said now was not the time to start the conversation.

‘For the moment, what happens now is keeping respectful silence,’ he wrote on Twitter in response to a question from a republic supporter.

‘Apart from quotes provided in case of her death, our only statement was the one acknowledging Her Majesty’s contribution to Australia for over 70 years.

‘There will be much to say, but now not time to say it.’

Five possible designs have been floated around as an alternative to the current flag that currently shows the Union Jack, Commonwealth Star and Southern Cross.

The variations were first explored by Jack Toohey, who is the director of production company Sure Studios, in a TikTok video.

The first flag Toohey showed in the video is called ‘The Reconciliation Flag’ designed in 2013 by John Blaxland.

It keeps the right hand side of the current flag; the Southern Cross stars on a blue background.

However Blaxland includes a seven pointed Commonwealth Star filled in with dots representing the 150 Indigenous and migrant languages spoken in Australia.

He has also included a red boomerang which appears as a fragment of the Union Jack, keeping Australia’s colonial history within the flag.

The next flag, titled ‘Down Under’, was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser in 1986.

It displays a red semi-circle on top of a blue background and a seven pointed star said to represent Uluru upside down.

It plays on the idea of Australia being the country ‘Down Under’.

The ‘Untitled Flag’ designed by John Joseph in 2006 is mentioned in the video and replaces the original Union Jack with an Indigenous dot painting.

There has been controversy around this particular design in recent years as the artist is not Indigenous.

A fan-favourite was ‘The Sunburnt Flag’ designed by Stephen Berry in 1998.

This design calls upon the idea of Australia being the ‘sunburnt country’, a term coined by Dorothea Mackellar in her poem ‘My Country’, first published in 1908.

The red base and yellow sunrise section of the design evokes the Aboriginal flag, blended with the blue ‘sky’ and Southern Cross from the existing flag.

The final design shown in the video is that of ‘The Golden Wattle’ designed in 2015 by Jeremy Matthews.

This design incorporates features that are already representative of Australia.

The golden wattle is the national flower of Australia and it is designed with the classic green and gold colours that the nation’s sporting teams wear.

The design of ‘The Golden Wattle’ also makes up the Commonwealth Star in the middle. The seven pointed star represents each state and territory in Australia.

Meanwhile, Ausflag has been collecting designs since 2015 with the public able to support their favourites, with some attracting thousands of votes.

Many of the most popular have incorporated a kangaroo into the design but the current leader is a Southern Cross and a federation star above stripes of green and gold  – the nation’s sporting colours derived from a blooming wattle.

It just edged out another Southern Cross design which has a green and gold boomerang through the centre.

Another Southern Cross flag with a version of the Aboriginal flag as a rising sun over a dark red horizon also attracted thousands of votes.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hosed down talk of Australia soon becoming a republic following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Despite the prime minister previously stating he would want Australia to move away from the monarchy, he said it was too soon to have those discussions.

‘Now is not a time to talk about our system of government, now is a time for us to pay tribute to the life of Queen Elizabeth,’ he told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

‘That’s the system of government that we have, it’s one which as Australian prime minister, I have a responsibility to respect.’

The comments come as King Charles III was proclaimed as monarch at a ceremony at Parliament House on Sunday by Governor-General David Hurley.

The prime minister brushed off questions about when would be the right time to start having conversations about moving away from the monarch.

‘Quite clearly, this is a time of national mourning,” Mr Albanese said.

‘Even though the Queen was 96 years of age and had lived such a long life, it still came as a shock. I think that says something about the way that the Queen was perceived as a constant in our lives.’

Former prime minister John Howard said he had no doubt the Queen was pleased when Australia voted not to become a republic during the 1999 referendum.

Mr Howard, who was prime minister at the time of the national vote, praised the Queen’s sense of duty and respect while the referendum campaign took place.

‘I have no doubt that she was pleased with the result, but she never sought to influence it. She continued to do her job, again and again,’ he told the ABC’s Insiders program.

Mr Howard also revealed his and the Queen’s private secretary shared three draft press statements on potential outcomes of the referendum.

While Australia voted not to become a republic at the time, Mr Howard said the statement in the event of a ‘yes’ vote would have expressed her love for Australia and desire to see the country succeed.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said any talk of Australia becoming a republic would need to be held at another time.

Mr Dutton has expressed his view that Australia should remain as a constitutional monarchy.

‘At the moment we mourn the loss of an incredible world leader, a woman who was obviously an amazing role model to many women, to many female leaders across the world,” he told the ABC.

‘We need a King as much as we did a Queen, because we have a stability in our system that served us well and I don’t believe in disrupting that.’