Why you are voting to keep NZ’s flag – And why I think you’re wrong

It is apparent from both forms of media – social and “traditional” that I’m on the losing side of the “change the flag” debate. Even the majority of my centre right associates, with whom I often – if not regularly – agree, seem to want to stay with the status quo.

The more astute of you will have noticed that I am still classifying social and “traditional” media as two distinct and mutually exclusive arms of the media (sarcasm/quotation marks intended).

I haven’t quite hit forty yet but I am confident in saying that back in my day the front pages of “traditional” media did not begin with “How the Twitterverse reacted to…” or “Have your say on…”.  They had the decency to keep celebrities in the celebrity gossip section and keep the news section for news. They stated facts… researched facts that allowed the reader to make up their own minds.

Oh, how I long for the good old days.

In an attempt to have my say on the Great New Zealand Flag Debate, I spent an hour or so in front of Twitter trying to come up with something witty and poignant in 140 characters or less before reverting to that most ancient form of healthy and open debate– blogging.

I don’t have all the rebuttals to all the arguments for keeping our flag but I am reading and listening to what you are saying and I can’t say I agree…

YOU SAY
$26 million dollars could be spent elsewhere

I SAY
Don’t tell me – it could have gone into education, hospitals, feeding the poor etc.

Fair call that – pat yourself on the back comrade.

Here’s the weird thing. I know people that will be voting to keep the current flag partially because they object to the cost of the referendum.

Many (dare I say most) of them are the same people that thought nothing of spending $9 million on a non-binding referendum to try and halt the sale of assets in 2013. This was a policy that the government ran on openly during the election and was therefore mandated to follow through with.

That needs repeating – $9 million on a referendum that the government acknowledged was going to be ignored!

Even good governance will upset everyone at some stage of a term. I personally would rather the $36 million “invested” in the Americas Cup in 2013 was put into more important things… like subsidising quality single malt whisky imports, but I was big enough to overlook this.

And anyway – just how much is $26 million?

The total Crown expenditure for year ending June 2015 was $94,272 million ($94.3 billion for those who prefer their accounting in hyperbole).

This (either way you want to read it) is an exceptionally large amount of money.

So – let’s assume the flag referendum funds were spent in the year to June 2015… The $26 million would represent….

• 0.03% of total Crown expenditure
• 0.11% of Crown expenditure on social security & welfare
• 0.17% of Crown expenditure on health
• 0.20% of Crown expenditure on education

These are an exceptionally small percentage figures and I struggled to get my head around how small 0.03% is – almost as much as I grappled to understand exactly how big $94 billion is.

I refer below to what appears to be the media industry standard for making financial data easier to understand to Joe Stupid (or the public as we non-media like to refer to them).  The block of cheese comparison. I apologise in advance that despite much researching (Googling) I was unable to get my head around the preferred double decker bus / Olympic swimming pool/ Empire State Building methods.

• If the equivalent percentage of the cost of the referendum was taken out of the average New Zealand median income it would equate to $13.50.
• $13.50 is as close-as-makes-no-difference the price of a block of cheese. You may recall the Crown (actually – the Opposition) promoting a tax reduction the equivalent to a block of cheese not all that long ago, so effectively the referendum is free!

Here’s the thing… Like it or not, the money has been spent. I promise you that governments in the future will upset you with their spending priorities. Don’t let cost alone cloud your judgement.

YOU SAY
The alternative flag looks like a corporate logo.

I SAY
Yeah… probably not the ideal statement for me to counter because I’m with you on this. Only I reckon it’s a good thing…

What is a national flag, if not a logo for a country? Corporations spend millions of dollars getting just the right logo for their brand… and now we have too.

I must admit I’m not even on the same page as the man who designed the proposed new flag.

“I feel like the fern with its multiple points represents multiple cultures coming together and growing upward into the future.” – Kyle Lockwood

Let’s look at this for what it is… the silver fern. Wait… I’ll capitalise it… The Silver Fern. Yep – that’s better.

One of my earliest memories, almost certainly my first moment of patriotism (albeit I couldn’t possibly have known what patriotism meant at the tender age of 3), was seeing John Walker running in the black singlet… with The Silver Fern.

The All Blacks are almost too obvious to bring up here but what “they” say is true. Many foreigners can’t find our country on a map of the world, but they know who the All Blacks are… and they recognise The Silver Fern.

It’s not just sport either. The graves of our fallen soldiers at Gallipoli are marked by The Silver Fern– the symbol of New Zealand’s contribution and sacrifice to the world.

Furthermore, with the proposed design we keep the stars of the Southern Cross and the blue background in what I perceive as a nod to the current flag and a shout out to our neighbours in Australia and the South Pacific.

For mine, Lockwood has nailed the design – just not his interpretation of it!

Here’s the thing… It might not be the design you wanted, it might not mean the same things to you as it does to me and that’s OK. You’d have to make a pretty solid argument that this design is not better branding for “New Zealand Inc.” than the current flag.

YOU SAY
My (insert relative here) fought/died (delete one) for that flag

I SAY
Did they?

I’d argue that they didn’t fight “for the flag”. I’d argue that they fought for their country – maybe even for Queen and Country – certainly for the people of their country, but not for the design that symbolised their country at that time.

Would these brave souls not have fought equally as hard prior to 1902 when the current flag was introduced? Will our soldiers of the future be less likely to lay down their lives under a new flag?

And let’s just say I’ve missed the mark here. Let’s say it was specifically the Union Jack part of the flag that the heroes at Gallipoli were fighting for.

Let’s time-travel back to a few hours after the tragic British error that resulted in the misguided landing of our boys at the wrong beach on the Canakkale Peninsula, leaving them exposed to fire and with a monumental unexpected climb in front of them.

Then, come with me as we go a few days forward to the scene of the Kiwis digging in while the British forces held back, well behind the front-line.

Several years ago I was fortunate enough to be able to make the pilgrimage to Gallipoli and enjoyed a tour with a Turkish guide.

“We don’t see many British tourists here”, he conceded…

“Probably too embarrassed”

I know we’d like to look back in black in white as, in the finest Queen’s English, our narrator carries on about the brave Antipodeans… but I’ll bet you this wasn’t the scene on the ground.

I bet you “Those fucking Poms” was an all too familiar phrase.

If your case for keeping the current design is still that our boys died for that flag, I would counter that many of our boys died because of that flag.

Here’s the thing… Our armed services do what they do for a number of reasons. To suggest that duty specifically to the flag is on anywhere near the same level as duty to their country and it’s people is, in my opinion, doing them a great disservice.

YOU SAY
This is just a legacy project for John Key

I SAY
Yeah? And? So? What?

It’s ever so popular to bag the current leader of any country but, in doing so, there must be a level of acknowledgement that John Key and the party he leads have received enough votes to ensure he has been the Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms. Our electoral system, whilst flawed, generally results an accurate reflection of the political leanings of the New Zealand public at election time.

I’m not a Labour voter but if Helen Clark had, justifiably, been looking for a legacy as a reminder of her time in charge of New Zealand, I’d still be voting for a change of flag.

Here’s the thing… I’m not fussed which side of the floor came up with this, nor do I care for their own personal reasons for doing so. I’m just happy to have my chance to have my say for my reasons.

YOU SAY
It’s a foregone conclusion. The flag will not change.

I SAY
I write this in the (possibly naive) hope that there is a silent majority out there that, until now have not given their voices to the debate. In most referendums the “time for a change” camps make all the noise while the silent majority await their inevitable victory, this one seems quite the opposite.

Here’s the thing… At the end of the day I’ll be casting my vote on the flag that I feel best represents the New Zealand that I know and love. I couldn’t care less about who decided to hold the referendum, how much it cost or who decided which options flew high and which were left at half-mast (sorry…)

I have been given the opportunity to vote for one flag over another. It’s a process I’m privileged to be involved with.

With the mess some parts of the world are in currently there is no better time to be a New Zealander. It’s a complicated world going through complicated times which is why I reckon it’s bloody magnificent to see that a flag change referendum is getting everyone as emotive and fired up as they are.

It just goes to show that we really don’t know how lucky we are.