Is it time New Zealand changed flag?

Jeremy, The NZ flag was designed before the current Australian flag. It was first gazetted in 1869 as NZ ships sailing without a flag were in violation of British navigation laws. Australia's flag was introduced in 1901 after a design competition, previously the colonies of Australia had individual flags, but no single flag to represent Australia other than the Union Jack. We shouldn't change the NZ flag because it looks similar to the Australian flag, the NZ flag came first. Ask Australia to change their flag if thats the only issue.

I think that the New Zealand flag should be changed because it is easily

confused with the Australian flag as they both have the same design.

Only that the Australian flag has more stars on it. A flag shouldn’t be

changed every year but it must be easily identified and it shouldn’t be

confused. It would be like looking at Australia.


For it to be instantly recognizable, the New Zealand flag needs to

have emotional and symbolic potency in order for it to be embraced and

used by New Zealanders. Also, New Zealand has got its independence and is

no longer part of the British Empire but we still have the Union Jack which

is a British Ensign, showing that we don’t have our own identity. A good

design could be a kiwi as New Zealanders are called Kiwis. Another might

be a silver fern on a black background as it is a native plant and has been a

feature of our iconography for well over a century. But the design can only

follow a referendum where New Zealanders vote for change.

people sould be happy with the flag there is nothing wrong with it. I think people are just making alot of fuss about it all. But personally being English myself I do think the Maori should have a say on what the flag should look like.

Maori or more correctly tangata Whenua Had a number of flags prior to 1840 The Kotahitanga parliment formed in 1808 had a red white and black flag still used today. Of course the 1834/1835 protectorate flag which flys everyday along side the british union jack at waitangi to acknowledge the treaty partnership is the only true National flag of Aotearoa/new Zealand. As a previous corespondant pointed out the present flag used by the defacto administration is a british ensign

Let me guess you are a leftist who would have me believe the English are a "nation of mongrels” – a propaganda lie beloved by followers of the multi-cultural establishment. All the evidence of DNA studies points to the fact that two-thirds of the indigenous people of the British Isles are the direct descendents of the first pioneers who followed the retreating ice sheets at the end of the last glaciation. Ethnic English are the aborigines of the British Isles. Since the English settled NZ, built it from the ground up, their efforts should be represented on the flag. The Maori’s didn’t have a flag when they signed Waitangi, the latest Maori flag was designed in the 1990’s. If we change the flag to represent the recent mass immigration should we change our laws too? Create Sharia for NZ to help the Muslim minority? Communism to help new Chinese immigrants?

Dave, you are clearly ignorant on the issue. The NZ flag is a Blue Ensign, the Blue ensign is a British flag. "The Blue Ensign is a flag, one of several British ensigns, used by certain organisations or territories associated with the United Kingdom. It is used either plain, or defaced with a badge or other emblem." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ensign Get your facts straight, we use a British blue ensign as our national flag. "Chris the majority of Kiwi's are ethnically English!" Firstly there is no ethnic English, most Kiwi's have many many ethnic groups (mainly European) in their heritage. So should we fly the EU flag then? There are growing numbers of people who are Asian, African, PI etc, alot of NZ's are Maori. So why do we a flag based on a British flag, we have given Britain so much and they gave us stuff all.

@Chris, "Our flag is British. Are we British? No". Chris the majority of Kiwi's are ethnically English! We belong to an ethnicity, we aren't ethnically Kiwi, there is no such thing. Stop looking at the flag as if it is a British flag. The Union Jack only makes up 25% of our flag, the other 75% of the flag represents the land in which we live.

I support retaining our Flag and see the move to get rid of it as just another attempt by the Anti-British colonialism of the Indigenous Rights racists.
I am not ashamed of our British colonial history nor do I believe the excuse that it is not inclusive of every New Zealander. I welcome migrants to become fellow citizens of our country but reject this as a pretext to change our flag.
When you migrate here you migrate to our flag as much as to our shores…and when I say ‘our’ I mean all New Zealanders irrespective of ethnicity.
Long may she fly!
God Bless all the old diggers and Maori Warriors who have fought under that glorious banner and our armed forces today who continue to do so!
What a silly idea it is to change such a sacred symbol
Tim Wikiriwhi.

Guy, "Where is the outcry over the increase in GST that will affect all of us. And where is the outcry over all the volcanoes in Auckland being handed over to Maori?" There isn't an outcry because GST going up is good and local Maori being gvien ownership of the volcanic cones is also good.

If we have a silver fern on it we will probably have to pay royalties to the NZ Rugby Union.
Sick of just about every suggestion having a koru on it to "represent Maori".
If we are going to do that why don't we add an Islamic crescent moon, a coconut or palm tree to represent the Pacific Islands, a kangaroo to represents all the Australians that have moved here, a pair of chopsticks to represent the Chinese etc, and jam all these images onto the flag so we don't offend any one group? We're supposedly multi-cultural aren't we? So why stop at the koru or silver fern to represent Maori?
This debate is stupid and is being given publicity to create a smoke screen for what is going on in parliament. Where is the outcry over the increase in GST that will affect all of us. And where is the outcry over all the volcanoes in Auckland being handed over to Maori?
Keep the flag as is and start worrying about the real issues in this country. Nothing will change as a result of a flag change. Crime won't go down, we won't get better healthcare and we won't get full employment from it.