NEXT asks: is the flag referendum worth it?
**YES
Sarah Henry
NEXT editor-in-chief**
When actress Emma Watson penned the phrase “If not me, who? If not now, when?” for her United Nations speech on gender equality I bet she had no idea that it would be used to discuss the changing of the New Zealand flag but hey, here we are. I kind of feel that way about John Key and his polarising and expensive idea that we need a new flag – “If not him, who? If not 2016, when?” To be honest, the most interaction I have had with the current New Zealand flag is learning to draw it at primary school and watching it be draped around a sporting star on a victory lap. That’s it. I have never felt a connection with it. I’m not attached to it. I won’t miss it if it does change, but in the same flip of the coin, I’m likely to feel exactly the same if we get a new flag. But this change isn’t for me. It’s for the people that come after us and something that represents a new New Zealand.
This country today is very different in its makeup from the one that was around in 1902 when we got our current flag. More than 200 ethnicities now call themselves Kiwis and that number is likely to grow. Why not honour that fact with a completely unique flag, one that celebrates the New Zealand of today and tomorrow rather than keep a flag chosen by premier Richard Seddon, who was embarrassed by the confusion over which flag was actually ours. Apparently, our current flag was used for marine purposes but found its way to land. I’m pretty sure there was no Flag Consideration Panel when that decision was made. We don’t need constitutional change as a reason to acknowledge our exceptional qualities as a nation on the world stage. We’re in charge of our own destiny; the referendum has shown that, which has got to be worth it. Come March we’ll know for sure what Kiwis think and maybe this is just the start of change.
**NO
Paul Henry
Presenter**
The question is not, is the time right to change the flag or should we have a new flag or which flag should we have – the question is why are we asking the question now? This is a significant change for New Zealand and there needs to be a reason – was there a groundswell of people requesting a new flag? No. Was there a constitutional change in New Zealand, meaning that a new flag, or at least looking at a new flag was appropriate? No. So for no good reason that I can think, we’ve launched a $26 million project to find another flag, and because there was no good reason, it means it’s a hurried project. It means that if at the end of this there is a new flag (and I’m sure there won’t be a new flag and the whole thing will have been a waste of time) it will not be a flag that has overwhelming support. You cannot have overwhelming support for something that nobody was calling for in the first place, other than possibly the prime minister of New Zealand.
So what will come out of this? People will look at the first referendum and say there was a 40-something % turnout, but actually the number of people who turn out for the referendum is not a judge for how successful the referendum is – the referendum is a fail in the first instance. So many of the people who voted in the first referendum had been encouraged to turn out to spoil their ballot, or, and this is the hardest one to determine, to vote for the flag they least like or that they think people will least like in order for that to come up against the New Zealand flag in the second referendum to ensure they get their true wish, which is to retain the current flag. We will never know the truth of that. The only thing we know for sure is that there was no overwhelming call for a change of the New Zealand flag.
We are wasting money – money that could be spent funding the drug Pembrolizumab [to treat melanoma] and keeping New Zealanders alive.
Photos by Thinkstock Images
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