After celebrating another Rugby Union World Cup triumph, New Zealanders are deciding what flag their beloved All Blacks will play under when they defend their crown.
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New Zealanders have just begun voting in a referendum to decide whether or not to change their national flag.
The first round will see five potential new designs reduced to one, which then goes head-to-head against the current flag in the second round next March.
The question on the ballot paper is, ‘If the New Zealand flag changes, which flag would you prefer?’
From a longlist of 40, selected from over 10,000 submissions, the Flag Consideration Panel selected five candidates:
Alofi Kanter’s black and white Silver Fern design uses the traditional symbol of New Zealand sporting teams, with the colours counterchanged.
Critics argue that it leans too heavily towards sport and fails to reflect the country as a whole.
Two Kyle Lockwood designs are somewhat similar to the current flag.
Both feature the Silver Fern above a red four-star Southern Cross on a dark blue background.
The red variant dates back to 2004 and beat the current flag in a 2005 poll conducted by TV3.
The black variant is reportedly Prime Minister John Key’s favourite.
But could two extremely similar designs take votes off each other? Or might it stack the deck in their favour?
Andrew Fyfe’s flag features a black and white Māori Koru (‘loop’), depicting an unfolding Silver Fern.
Social media dubbed it the ‘Hypnoflag’ after its unveiling.
These four designs comprised the original shortlist but attracted heavy criticism from the public, vexillologists and professional designers alike.
Unappealing, clichéd, dull, too logo-like and too similar were the complaints.
In response the Panel added a further flag to the shortlist, Aaron Dustin’s Red Peak.
Over the next few weeks, communities will receive free sets of flags, enabling New Zealanders to see these designs in ‘real-life situations’.
The first round concludes on 11 December, with polls indicating that the current flag will remain.
Author: Alex Crouch (Flag Institute accredited journalist, 2015/16)
I am a New Zealand citizen. I am very anti changing the New Zealand flag. I don’t see the Union Jack on any of the 5 choices of new flag. The Union Jack, so I thought, symbolises our links with Her Majesty The Queen and the Commonwealth, and all our forefathers fought for. And just for extra, New Zealand has recently been replacing old currency with new currency and I can’t see a watermark of Her Majesty the Queen on any new bank notes I have seen. Please fill me in if you can because no one I have spoken to seems to know or notice. Comments welcome.
It would seem rather unusual to include a flag with a Union Jack as an alternative to the exiting NZ flag which of course has a union Jack, when the main reason for those who wish to change the NZ flag, wish to do so because of the Union Jack. I can assure you our forefathers did not fight for the NZ Flag, to do so would be rather silly. And as for the new NZ currency, that’s outside of the scope of this forum.
It would seem rather unusual to include a flag with a Union Jack as an alternative to the exiting NZ flag which of course has a union Jack, when the main reason for those who wish to change the NZ flag, wish to do so because of the Union Jack. I can assure you our forefathers did not fight for the NZ Flag, to do so would be rather silly. And as for the new NZ currency, that’s outside of the scope of this forum.