City of Gold Coast council was forced to abandon plans to hand out double-sided Australian and Aboriginal flags at a citizenship ceremony on January 26 after fielding complaints by a number of ratepaying residents and its own councillors.

The backlash came after the same flags that were supposed to symbolise unity and council's support for the Aboriginal Community on Bundjalung land for Invasion Day were used without question in another citizenship ceremony four months earlier.

Nothing was said at the time of the low-key ceremony and no formal complaint was lodged after staff first orchestrated doubled-sided flags through the Department of Home Affairs for the Immigration and Citizenship ministry.

They were discarded days before the January 26 event after shocked Gold Coast councillor Brooke Patterson was told by a number of residents in her ward of the flag's planned appearance.

"The Mayor's office did not know anything about it, nor did any elected representative," she told Brisbane radio station 4BC.

The flag design was approved by a senior officer in council's heritage department, apparently telling young staff the dual sides were a "great idea", according to Cr Patterson.

Staff are only supposed to act on motions that have been carried in council meetings and not on their own ideas.

Cr Patterson informed staff, including City Mayor Tom Tate, of the growing number of objections, as more councillors came forward with their negative feedback about adding the Aboriginal flag to the design.

Residents that had concerns for the flags told councillors they would lose their vote, Cr Patterson added.

"It was a strange thing to have to do," she said, talking of the City of Gold Coast's decision to fork out ratepayer's cash for the flags.

On the orders of several angered councillors, the flags were scrapped altogether at a cost to ratepayers and are set to never return for official council business.

"Citizenship ceremonies are a time to really respect our tradition and recognise the future of our new Australians," Cr Patterson said.

Australian national flag protocols state that the flag must be "used with respect and dignity" and that no two flags may be flown on the same flagpole.

The Mayor's office, which admitted the flags were paid through the public purse, confirmed the flags for hundreds of immigrants, who became Australian citizens on Sunday, should not be pledging allegiance to two flags.

"A mistake was made and we have corrected it," a spokesman said on behalf of Cr Tate said in a public statement.

The backlash had Federal Opposition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price weigh into the heart of the debate.

The Country Liberal Party senator called the whole matter "ridiculous".

She also accused the City of Gold Coast were "ignorant" and it had caused an unnecessary controversy on a sensitive day.

"The Australian flag is representative of the Australian people and therefore I believe it should be the only flag applied during Australian citizenship ceremonies," Senator Price told The Australian.

"The Aboriginal flag is not a national flag.

"If you really knew anything about the Australian flag, you would understand that Aboriginal people are represented through the Southern Cross.

"It is ignorance on the part of the council.

"Activism and division do not unite communities."

This latest controversy comes after a newly elected Federal government in 2022 told councils across the nation Canberra no longer mandated the holding of annual citizenship ceremonies on January 26 following sensitive feedback from many Indigenous communities.

More than 80 councils in Australia withdrew holding citizenship ceremonies on the contentious date, instead holding them on other days either side of the national public holiday.

Nearly three years since that proposition, some councils reversed their decision under greater scrutiny over boycotting Australia Day.

The Australian flag was distributed on Sunday at Gold Coast council's citizenship events with the code for citizenship ceremonies being strictly adhered to.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said he would consider legislating January 26 as the national public day, as well as removing both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags from behind the Prime Ministerial podium should he win this year's Federal election.