Ah... New Zealand, the so-often forgotten about island country in the South Pacific.
Unfairly cut-off from so many world maps, most well-known for Peter Jackson’s
Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, their world-famous rugby team, the All Blacks...
and sheep... lots of sheep.
It has been referred to as “Australia’s Australia”, and so often are the two countries
confused one way or another. Whether it be their similar accents, or, more relevant to
this video - their flags.
New Zealand’s flag has a dark blue background, with a Union Jack as its canton, and a Southern
Cross on the right side. Whereas Australia’s flag has a dark blue background, with a Union
Jack as its canton, and a Southern Cross on the right side… plus a Commonwealth Star
on the left side.
Their flags are very similar. This is one issue some people have with the New Zealand
flag, that it looks so similar to Australia’s. But on top of that, just that very fact that
it has a Union Jack on it, given that New Zealand is a fully independent country.
New Zealand is part of the Commonwealth, and Queen Elizabeth is still their head of state,
as it was a former British colony. However, the country has been completely independent
for nearly 70 years.
So for these reasons, many people feel that changing the flag would be appropriate, and
the country will be having a referendum to decide whether or not to change it.
New Zealand and Australia aren’t the only independent countries in the world to have
a Union Jack as a canton. There’s also Fiji and Tuvalu. Although Fiji's Prime Minister
has said the Union Jack will be removed from the flag of Fiji, and in June 2015
23 finalist designs were selected by Fiji’s National Flag Committee.
The problem with having a Union Jack on its flag, is that it makes New Zealand look as
if it’s still a British territory, their flag fits in pretty well with the flags of
the current British territories.
The process to potentially change the flag began with flags being submitted by the public.
There were more than 10,000 entries… not all of which were, uh.. entirely serious.
From these 10,000 designs, the flag committee narrowed it down to a final 40, the long list.
Almost all of the 40 flags some similar themes. In fact, there were 3 themes, at least one
of which is present in almost every flag. First, the silver fern, already very much
a symbol used to represent New Zealand. It can be seen on their national coat of arms,
the country’s $1 coin, as well as being the symbol for several New Zealand sports
teams, most notably, the All Blacks.
Second, the koru, an unfurling silver fern, generally used as symbol of the Māori people,
the indigenous Polynesians of New Zealand.
Third, and already present in the current New Zealand flag - the Southern Cross. That
is, the constellation visible from the Southern Hemisphere, also known as the Crux. As well
as New Zealand, there are 4 other national flags which depict the Southern Cross. Australia, obviously,
but also Brazil, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.
The 40 flags became 39 as one of the flags was removed due to copyright issues.
Then these 39 flags were then further narrowed down to a “shortlist” of 4 flags: the
black and white silver fern; the red, white and blue silver fern; the black, white and
blue silver fern; and the black and white koru.
Many people were unhappy with this final four, given that 3 of the 4 finalists had
a silver fern, and 2 of them were extremely similar, both of which were designed by the same person, in fact.
Some people criticised the flag committee for having bias towards the silver fern, and
tried to push their favourite design.
One flag that was very popular among the final 40, but was not included, was a flag called
Red Peak. One of only 2 flags that did NOT contain a silver fern, koru, or a Southern Cross
An online petition signed by more than 50,000 people and a bill proposed by the Green
Party, brought about the inclusion of the Red Peak flag as one of the finalists, bringing
the number of final flags up to 5.
The whole flag referendum was not without its controversies.. for one thing, the estimated
cost of the referendum was $26 million. Many people believe that money could have been
better spent elsewhere. A lot of people think there are far more pressing issues, of more
importance like, education, or health care, for example.
Some have criticised Prime Minister John Key's decision to hold the referendum, calling it
a "vanity project". The conservative political party New Zealand First, accused him of using
the referendum as a distraction from poverty and housing issues.
So from this point onwards, it was up to the public. First, a potential new flag needs
to be picked, then the selected flag must go against the current flag to decide if the
people actually want a new flag.
This is done by 2 referendums. The first, to choose between the 5 potential new designs,
which took place between November and December 2015. The second referendum will take place
in March 2016.
Many people criticised this order of questioning. Many people suggested it should have been the other
way around. i.e, first ask the people if they actually want a new flag, and then pick a new one.
The first referendum used a method by which voters can rank their favourite flags in order
- a preferential voting system.
Preferential voting works like this…
image that we’re trying to find out what’s the most popular fruit, there are 5 choices:
Apple, Banana, Strawberry, Orange, or Grape.
On the voting ballot, voters must list their fruits, from favourite, to least favourite,
ranking them from 1 to 5. They can write as many or as few numbers as they wish
(i.e they could write 1 and leave it at that, if they’re indifferent towards the other 4),
or they could fill in all 5 numbers. However, they cannot put the same number twice or skip any numbers.
The votes are counted as follows… first, all of the first choices are counted. Next, the
least popular is eliminated. Everyone who chose the least popular as their first choice,
gets their second choice votes added. This continues until one candidate has 50%
or is the only one remaining.
In this example, even though strawberry had the most first-choice votes, apple won
because in this hypothetical example, many people love strawberries, but also many people
hate strawberries, whereas, everyone likes apples.
Under a first-past-the-post voting system, strawberry would have won. But under preferential voting, apple wins.
This is especially beneficial in this flag referendum since 3 of the flags
have a silver ferns, 2 of which are very similar. Under first-past-the-post, people who wanted
a silver fern would essentially have their vote split 3 ways. So for example, if 70%
of the population wanted a silver fern, the votes would have been spread out across 3 flags,
potentially allowing another flag to win, even though 70% of people wanted a silver fern.
This is no problem with preferential voting, as voters can rank their flags in order.
As a sign of protest, some voters purposely spoiled their ballot paper, to show their
disapproval towards the referendum as a whole.
But with over 1.5 million votes, the winner of the first referendum, announced on December 15th
was the black, white & blue silver fern. The voting breakdown showed preferential voting
to be decisive as the other Kyle Lockwood design, the red, white and blue fern, actually
had the most first-choice votes. The winner will now go head-to-head with the current
New Zealand flag in the second referendum in March 2016, when we will find out
whether or not New Zealand has decided to change its flag, or decided to stick with the current design...