New Zealand keeps current flag
So, that’s it. After a 10 month, $26m process, New Zealand has decided to keep its current flag with 1.2m votes in favour – an outcome indicated in polling for some months.
Kyle Lockwood’s preferred alternative received 915,000 votes, though prime minister John Key has said this will crack 1m once the official result had been counted.
Key admitted to being “a bit disappointed” but said he’ll back the result, and encouraged New Zealanders to get out there and fly their (Union Jack) flag, affirmed by the knowledge that it has the support of the majority of voters.
He refuted suggestion that the process had been a waste of time and money, or that he’d approach it differently with the benefit of hindsight.
Both Key and the deputy prime minister Bill English, the minister responsible for the flag consideration project, said the process was valuable in that it prompted a debate about nationhood.
While supporters of change are optimistic that New Zealand will get a new design one day, Key has said it will probably be tied to the issue of a republic – which he himself is not in favour of. Future PMs, however, may be more open to it.
Though a change of flag is unlikely to be revisited any time soon, the extent of the fall-out is not yet apparent. The question is whether John Key’s perceived pushing of the issue will have any impact on his popularity.
For now, though, I’ll dream of unfurling fern fronds underneath the Southern Cross constellation. Thanks for following along, and may the Lorde be with you – we’ll always have the kiwi with lasers for eyes.
John Key was asked by a reporter whether he had a “strategy” for ensuring that New Zealand’s flag would not be confused with Australia’s.
“I’ll be vigilant,” he responded.
John Key has addressed reporters: “Obviously I’m naturally a bit disappointed that the flag didn’t change tonight.”
He said that, once final votes have been counted, more than one million people will have voted for Lockwood’s design, showing “widespread support”. He also said that the result was closer than polling suggested it would be.
Key says the “discussion about nationhood” was valuable even if it did not result in a change of flag.
“I think, for me, personally, I’ll now be supporting the current New Zealand flag ... what this process has shown over the last three or four months is that as a country we can get out and fly our flag. ...
“My only request to New Zealanders now would be to rally behind the flag that has been chosen by the majority of New Zealanders – to go out and use it, to wave it, to be proud of it, to celebrate the fact that we’ve got an amazing country.”
Asked by a reporter how he felt when he saw the result, he said “naturally a little bit disappointed” and reiterated the closeness of the result, compared to polls that suggested 65-25 in favour of the current flag.
Key said the reasons for change were accepted by a lot of New Zealanders, but they wanted to retain ties with British history through the Union Jack rather than move forward into the future with a silver fern.
“That wasn’t my view of things, but I respect the view of New Zealanders, but it was a healthy debate to have. ... You can’t shy away from having a debate about nationhood.”
He refuted a reporter’s suggestion that the $26m process had “come to nothing”, again reiterating that support for change was up on previous indications. “Just because it didn’t achieve the outcome that I would have wanted doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a worthwhile process. ...
“You’ve got to say, a lot of votes swung.”
Dying Art, a New Zealand-based “custom casket design” company, offers both Lockwood’s preferred alternative flag and the current flag for the true patriot.
“Over the years we have received a great deal of positive feedback from family members to tell us how much their personalised caskets have changed the entire mood of the service. ... If you wish to order this design, please contact us and we will help you through the process.”
Dying Art did not respond to requests for comment (“Why”).
Alternate New Zealand Flag: the custom casket design. I don't know why this exists: https://t.co/Gmw5jLbbew pic.twitter.com/BgSMeuodBY
— Elle Hunt (@mlle_elle) March 24, 2016
It’s hard to pick my favourite moment of this campaign. Let’s look back at some of the gems, from start to finish:
- The silver fern on black – an obvious choice, even aside from its ‘sports logo’ connotations – was ruled out of consideration because of its apparent similarity to the Isis flag
- The longlist of 40, chosen from nearly 10,300 submissions by the 12-person “flag consideration panel”, included one that was in breach of copyright
- The panel was found to have received a total of three hours of design consultation – from a Nike shoe designer, not a vexillologist
- Three of the four shortlisted designs were silver ferns; one was an unfurling fern frond; two were by the same designer and looked more or less the same
- A conservative MP objected to the Red Peak design being added to the shortlist because of its apparent similarity to markings painted on Nazi sentry boxes
- Red Peak was added by a government bill passed under urgency, following pressure on social media; it was steamrollered by both Lockwood designs in the first referendum
- The preferred alternative Lockwood flag flown from the Auckland Harbour Bridge in a bid to inform voters was found to be the wrong shade of blue and replaced at the cost of “not more than $4000”
- Shortly before voting in the second referendum closed, the minister responsible admitted that he did not know how much it would cost to update official material such as police uniforms, driver’s licenses and navy ships with the new flag (“We haven’t gone into huge detail”)
- A feng shui consultant warned that the Kyle Lockwood alternative design represented “evil and sadness”, and warned of bad luck, instability and even a stock market crash if it was adopted
Next question: do we need a flag at all?
Do we even need a flag? We're an island! When other countries come here they'll know where they are. #nzflag
— Guy Williams (@guywilliamsguy) March 24, 2016
John Key: be proud of the current flag
New Zealand has voted to retain our current flag. I encourage all NZers to use it, embrace it and, more importantly, be proud of it.
— John Key (@johnkeypm) March 24, 2016
.@johnkeypm What now John
— Sophie Scruggs (@SophieAScruggs) March 24, 2016
WHAT NOW
There are two definite strands of commentary on social media: 1) the cost of the process, estimated to have been around NZ $26m, and 2) the result being closer than anticipated.
I wish we just divided the 26 million up and got $6 each instead of this #nzflag
— Melanie Bracewell (@meladoodle) March 24, 2016
So the union jack stays. #nzflag #$26mtostaythesame
— Demelza Leslie (@demelzaleslie) March 24, 2016
Glad we wasted money that could've been spent on kids who need shoes and warm clothes or on the homeless living all over Nz. #NZFLAG
— Grace (@Grace_Marie1103) March 24, 2016
#nzflag result closer than I thought. If @nzlabour & and design community had engaged in process constructively, there would've been change
— Matthew Hooton (@MatthewHootonNZ) March 24, 2016
So much money could have been saved by including a 'do you want to change the flag' in the 2014 election #nzflag
— MissBetseyTrotwood (@Suzyiam) March 24, 2016
I haven't been this slightly disappointed since I hit two red lights in a row on the drive home yesterday #NZFlag #flagreferendum
— Daniel Stevens (@DanielWStevens) March 24, 2016
Next time let's use a little more design science, and a little more expertise? #nzflag #ausflag
— Janice Mckay (@janice__mckay) March 24, 2016
We can find a better flag, after a better process, at another time. #nzflag
— Richard Boock (@richardboock) March 24, 2016
We're sticking with the same #NZFlag pic.twitter.com/cSpQggZjfv
— Sam Smith (@ReelBigSmith) March 24, 2016
Vote to keep flag "a snub to prime minister John Key"
New Zealand historian Dr Paul Moon of AUT University says the bid to change the flag failed because there was no momentum behind the issue, and because the shortlisted options were “insipid and unimaginative”.
“There was no popular sentiment for a change,” he told Guardian Australia. “Indeed, most people barely considered our national flag as an issue until it was thrust in front of them in the form of an impending referendum. The old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ was evidently lost on those promoting a change.
“Flag changes typically accompany periods of social or political convulsion, or the emergence of new nation-states. None of those conditions applied in this case.”
“Entrusted with a once-in-a-lifetime task to select four alternative contenders for our national flag, the panel delivered options that were insipid and unimaginative. And to make matters worse, for all the talk of inclusivity, serious indigenous input was largely whitewashed. What we were left with was culturally monochromatic and aesthetically neutered design to go up against the incumbent.
“We were told a new flag was needed because we were ‘more multicultural’, ‘more independent’, and ‘more vibrant’ as a nation. Putting these clichés aside, the premise that we change a flag as our identity evolves is inherently flawed. Flags, like our names, remain with us as we mature and are the sum total of our existence.”
Updated
Change the Flag campaign chairman Lewis Holman is “disappointed” with tonight’s result, but says that this is “just the beginning” of the flag change debate. (Picture my face as rendered by Edvard Munch.)
He spoke to Eleanor Ainge Roy for Guardian Australia at the referendum-night party in Auckland, where he was with 25 others (50 were apparently expected).
“I am disappointed, we felt we put up a positive campaign. At the end of the day, New Zealand people have spoken and given us a result a lot closer than we had originally thought. What it says is we have won the debate in changing the flag, we just lost it around process and design.
“The criticism I saw out and about, we know from polling, 20% said they supported change, but didn’t like the specific design options. I think this is a reflection of that, more than anything else.
“It will take a while before we see someone willing to put political capital into it, but I do think it [a flag change] will happen in the next decade. This has kicked off the debate. This isn’t the end, just the beginning.”
New Zealand government: "New Zealanders have chosen their flag"
Bill English, the deputy prime minister and minister responsible for the flag debate (though, in all honesty, it feels like we’ve heard more from John Oliver than him on the subject), has issued a statement praising the “robust democratic process [that] allowed New Zealanders to choose their flag”:
“We have run a robust, democratic process that has allowed us to discuss who we are and how we want to be represented on the world stage.
“I acknowledge there will be those who are disappointed with the outcome, but the majority of New Zealanders have spoken and we should all embrace that decision.
“This process has engaged Kiwis in their homes, in their schools and in their workplaces, here in New Zealand, and right around the world – it is something we’ve all had a point of view on.
“It’s been a good conversation to have – voter turn-out of 2,119, 953 shows how deeply passionate New Zealanders are about their national identity.”
The press release also notes the success of the “alternative design gallery” (that’s the one that had the kiwi with lasers for eyes), which it says “drew over two million page views”. How robust is a democratic process that can’t be measured in metrics, after all?
English thanked everybody for taking part in the process, saying it had been “a good debate around patriotism”.
“Now a flag has been decided I encourage all New Zealanders to use it, embrace it and, more importantly, be proud of it.”
There are many, many questions and criticisms that have gone unacknowledged and unanswered there – but the fall-out from the process (which, remember, cost an estimated $26m) is only getting started.
Turn-out in the second referendum was far higher than that of the first, with the preliminary results showing more than 2.1m votes cast in total. (That’s a lot for a country with a population of about 4.5m, remember.)
1.2m votes were for the current flag and just over 915,000 were for Kyle Lockwood’s.
The red line is first #nzflag referendum votes, the green line is votes in the second referendum to 23 March pic.twitter.com/jEOGSWN4kw
— Elle Hunt (@mlle_elle) March 24, 2016
New Zealand votes to keep the current flag
The votes are in... and it’s as expected.
The current flag has received 56.6% of the total valid votes, to Lockwood’s 43.2%.
New Zealand votes to keep current flag with 56.6% of the vote, compared to 43.2% for Lockwood #nzflag pic.twitter.com/1Ao6WW1OmD
— Elle Hunt (@mlle_elle) March 24, 2016
The number of invalid votes cast was 4,554.
Voter turnout is 67.3%. Turnout is calculated by taking the total votes received of 2,124,507 (being total valid and invalid votes) as a percentage of the total number of voters enrolled as at 3 March 2016 (3,158,576).
The official result for the second referendum on the New Zealand Flag will be declared on Wednesday 30 March. With that kind of a margin, it’s unlikely that the final result will be different.
Updated
The second referendum asked New Zealanders simply to pick between Lockwood’s flag, or the current one – so there will be no knowing who voted for retention because they felt their hands were tied.
I never bought the change for change sake arguments. Would love to know number voting for change despite not liking alternative #NZflag
— Ross Kettle (@rosspkettle) March 24, 2016
Since we'll never know, I wonder how many, like me, supported a flag change but ended up voting for the current flag
— PINKY FANG (@PINKYFANG) March 23, 2016
If the first part of the referendum had been 'this is how much this process will cost, do you support a flag change' I would've said no
— PINKY FANG (@PINKYFANG) March 23, 2016
(To be clear, I supported a change BEFORE the shortlist was revealed)
— PINKY FANG (@PINKYFANG) March 23, 2016
This pamphlet (“It’s time to decide”) accompanied voting papers for the second referendum.
It displays both the current flag and Lockwood’s silver fern design in a variety of contexts to help New Zealanders reach an informed decision: drawn in chalk on the pavement by children, as a patch on a backpack worn before a waterfall, flown at a sporting event, limp on the pole.
The true test of a good design: would you want it painted on both cheeks?
The resource sent out to all eligible voters in second #nzflag referendum. Which looks better as a backpack patch? pic.twitter.com/5AqsTsfAVZ
— Elle Hunt (@mlle_elle) March 24, 2016
Turnout in the second referendum (which asked New Zealanders whether they’d prefer to keep the current flag or adopt Kyle Lockwood’s) exceeded that of the first (which asked them to rank the shortlisted five designs in order of preference) within a fortnight of voting opening, suggesting that it’s easier to mobilise people to protect the status quo.
The Returned Services’ Association, for example, has been against any change of flag from the start, as have conservative political groups.
Partly because of Key’s vocal support for change, and partly because the question of whether or not to adopt a new flag has not been tied to the question of New Zealand becoming a republic, there are plenty of people who are not especially fond of the current design but don’t like Lockwood’s design – or how the process was handled – to vote for any other outcome than retention.
If the vote does call for a new flag, the associated emoji 🇳🇿 will need to be updated for all the times New Zealanders go to text each other the lyrics to the national anthem, or every time they see Lorde down at the shops.
According to the online resource Emojipedia, responsibility for updating the image associated with an emoji lies with individual vendors such as Apple and Google, rather than the governing body Unicode. Historical flags are not supported, and the current flag should always be used where it is clear, said Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge – though quirks did occur.
For the emoji flag for Réunion, which Apple used a colourful design proposed by the Association for the Réunion Island, rather than its official French flag; all the other vendors followed suit. “Sometimes strange things happen,” said Burge. “We’re attempting to get to the bottom of that one!”
That’s sort of the equivalent of Apple making the Lockwood design the emoji for New Zealand, regardless of the outcome of tonight’s announcement.
Burge said a change in the New Zealand flag emoji would be a first. He himself was in favour of the new flag, if only for ease of use: scrolling through pages of tiny thumbnails on an emoji keyboard is just about the one time John Key’s argument that the current flag is too similar to Australia’s seems like a credible cause for change.
Burge pointed out that there were plenty of flags that featured the Union Jack on blue. “If anything, New Zealand should change its flag to save emoji users getting eye-strain finding the right one in a sea of similar flags.”
If the Electoral Commission in Wellington is running to schedule, we’re about 20 minutes away from an announcement of the preliminary results of the second referendum, which asked eligible voters to choose between retaining the current flag and Kyle Lockwood’s top-voted blue-and-black design.
From outside New Zealand, voting to retain the status quo might seem like a squandered opportunity – there are so many people, in so many countries, that would love to cast the Union Jack off theirs.
But within New Zealand, even among prime minister John Key’s supporters, there’s a sense that this decision has been forced upon them without any particular impetus. Key’s made no bones about his enthusiasm for a new flag, which has struck many as a stab at legacy-building.
According to a telephone survey undertaken in the last week of February, almost two-thirds of New Zealanders want to maintain the status quo, with 59% agreeing the issue had been “a distraction and a waste of money”, and that voting for the current flag would “send John Key a message”.
Support for change was only marginally higher among supporters of Key’s National Party.
Given the longlist, the eventual shortlist of four designs was perhaps unsurprising.
The choice between three ferns and an unfurling fern frond was criticised by many for failing to showcase a range of options, spurring a social media campaign and a government motion to add a fifth design, Red Peak by Aaron Dustin.
The movement gained traction after revelations that the flag consideration panel received just four hours of design advice – and that one of its 12 members sits on a government board that promotes the black and white fern logo that appears on one of the final four designs.
A petition calling for Red Peak to be included was presented to parliament with about 50,000 signatures and cross-party support in mid-September.
Though John Key initially resisted the pressure (“there would probably be a group that would say I want another version, another flag”), Red Peak was added to the options presented in the first referendum.
But campaigning on social media failed to translate to votes, with it finishing well behind both the designs by Kyle Lockwood (the blue-and-black silver fern with Southern Cross constellation, and the red-and-black silver fern with Southern Cross constellation).
The 12-person panel reached its longlist from the 10,292 submitted by members of the public, most of whom had no more design credentials than those that come with Photoshop and an internet connection.
Its longlist of 40 designs, released in early August, featured a lot of silver ferns and a lot of koru (unfurling fern fronds). One of the designs, the ‘Modern Hundertwasser’, was subsequently removed from consideration following a copyright claim.
It’s somewhat mind-boggling to think that this process got underway in earnest in May last year, when a government-appointed “flag consideration panel” put out a call for public submissions of New Zealand’s potential new flag.
More than 10,200 designs were received, many of which sang with promise. You might remember the kiwi with lasers for eyes, and – my personal favourite – “deranged cat raking its garden”. Of course, none of the below made the initial longlist of 40. What could have been...
10 months, 10,300 designs, and it comes down to this
$26 million dollars, 10,300 designs, ten months, and two referendums have come down to this: soon we’ll know whether or not New Zealand will change its flag.
The second postal referendum, which asked voters to choose between the existing flag and the preferred alternative design by Kyle Lockwood, began on 3 March.
The Electoral Commission, based in the nation’s capital Wellington, is expected to announce the preliminary results at 8.30pm local time.
Whether or not the vote calls for a change or maintains the status quo, it will conclude a process that began in earnest in May last year. But New Zealand’s prime minister John Key, the most vocal proponent for a new look for the island nation, floated the idea as long ago as February 2014.
If tonight’s outcome is to keep the current flag, as polling (and the almost total lack of impetus on the issue from its outset) suggests, will it have any impact on Key’s popularity as PM?
As we await tonight’s decision, we’ll look back on the highs, lows, and laser kiwis that have made this debate all the more fascinating to follow from afar (and frustrating from within).
God defend our free land! 🇳🇿
