Craig Nicholson
29 January 2005
Let's talk flags. Now, in my humble opinion, even editors (and Australian ones at that) are allowed an opinion on whether New Zealand needs a new flag.
I've been in this beautiful country for nearly 12 years now so I'm thinking I probably just about qualify as one with a vested interest in the future of New Zealand.
The flag is a symbol of who New Zealand is, who it was and where it is going. But it is the now and the future that are most important in my book.
So, as you might have guessed, I'm all with the 'change the flag' brigade led by, among others, prominent Bay identities
Dame Susan Devoy and Port of Tauranga chief executive Jon Mayson.
What does the New Zealand flag stand for?
Take a long look and what you see predominantly is the Union Jack.
Is this a British colony we live in? Are we still in the coatpockets of the colonial masters who once ruled us?
I think not. New Zealand is a very strong and proud country with its own heart and own mind.
I know only too well that Kiwis don't want to be seen as Australians or part of Australia. You are rightfully proud of who you are and where you come from. Why on Earth would anybody want to be so closely linked with Britain and, for that matter Australia, with a national flag.
Now I can understand the emotive argument that Kiwis fought and died under the flag through two world wars. But didn't they fight for New Zealand rather than a flag?
Follow this argument further and you'd be setting the New Zealand flag in stone for centuries to come. 'Don't ever change' the signs would say.
The reality is that everything must change and our job is to ensure it changes for the better.
I know Australia has gone through these issues before and will no doubt go through them again as the relentless pursuit of a republic draws ever nearer.
But there is historical evidence to suggest that changing a flag does not destroy any national psyche.
Of the world's flags, the maple leaf of Canada would surely be among the most recognisable. It is an image that immediately associates you with a country and its people.
Go back 40 years and Canada grappled with changing their flag from a red design with Union Jack top left and a coat of arms where our Southern Cross sits.
Sound at all familiar?
Canada felt it had moved on from its Commonwealth roots and sought a fresh identity.
South Africa took a somewhat similar path in 1994 as the apartheid days gave way to the Rainbow Nation.
In the change of the flag, the Union Jack was also lost.
The new flag designs I have seen in the past few days offer me great hope that New Zealand could have a spectacular flag at some stage in the near future - a flag that will be identified around the world as the flag of that great little nation in the South Pacific.
It won't look anything like Australia's and the colonial links will be quietly put aside.
New Zealand will be looking to the future with a positive air and an assured stride.
One thing I am fairly sure of is that in my lifetime both Australia and New Zealand will become republics but before that they will take on a new public face with a flag that better reflects who they are now and not who they once were.
New Zealand hasn't got to where it is now by standing still and watching the world go by.
We have to keep moving forward and while we should never forget the past, it should never hinder our future.
Bay of Plenty Times
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