The New Zealand flag
 

Time for a new one? If so, what should it look like?

What say you, savages?

no

Poll it up, yo.

I reckon we need a change. The current one doesn't represent us adequately and as a side annoyance is too similar to Australia's.

Yeah time for a new one. Preferably one that has some component that is unmistakeably Kiwi.

this

I'm all for a change to something more kiwi.

What reasons are people against changing?

The Wellywood sign

I'd like to see a change to something more Kiwi. I like the thought of a silver fern, but I don't think a plain black background - "sable a fern argent" - would work as a national flag.

Maybe.

It doesn't seem to me like there is any point in changing the flag if there is not a significant change in the country. If we ditched the Queen and became a republic, then it would make sense to change the flag to lose the bullshit Union Jack etc.

A new flag by itself serves no purpose. Who cares what our flag looks like? What is the function of a flag in today's world? I don't think it's useful to waste man-hours/money/resources changing the design simply for the sake of changing the design. It's not a sports team uniform.

There is already the Tino Rangitiratanga flag for people who can't stand the Queen. Use that one if you want to make a statement.

Yeah that's a point. Afaik the way National wants to do it is they choose a few designs and then the public then get to choose from those. Plenty of room for but hurt.

The traditionalist argument doesn't seem to hold up though. If the people of NZ want a change it should change.

As long as there's a silver fern and no union jack then I'll probably be ok with it.

Here's a post from Tim Watkin basically saying that this flag distraction may backfire as it will motivate more of the oldies to vote and this will help Winston.

http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/the-...time-and-place

I have no problem with the idea of changing the flag - though it would be nice if the change coincided with some sigificant changes within NZ (obviously not going to happen though).

On the other hand I am quite opposed to the use of the silver fern - but not for the bat-shit-crazy reasons presented by the RSA (that people would confuse it with a white feather - like a white feather has some universal meaning).

I guess my issue with the silver fern is that it is, at least to me, a corporate logo now. Various versions of it have been trademarked over the years and it's used by both NZ and overseas based companies. Sure it's been used by a number of our sporting teams but many of those (such as Team NZ <retch>) are run as corporate organisations anyway and represent various brands as much as they do NZ (All Blacks, Team NZ).

I quite like the idea of using a Koru and would love any change in the flag to at least in someway have a connection with Maori, even if it's just using the artistic style seen in a lot of Maori art.

Pixie

[oh and John Ansell]

im on the no train

I don't know why people think our flag 'isn't kiwi'? Don't get me wrong, England and the Monarchy can go fuck themselves, but it's part of our history, ya know? It's what we've made under that flapping bit of cloth.

But meh, if you must change it. Slap a fucking koru on there or something -> Some maori shit, some white fullah bs, some fucking stars for location, chuuur.

Unless were no longer going to be part of commonwealth I say nay, even if we did I wouldn't want it to change tbh.

Yeah, it's not that I don't think that the flag is "kiwi" (as you said it's part of our history), just that I reckon we could have something which is a bit more contemporary recognises different aspects of our history.

^^ yeah this pretty much sums up my view - nicely put :-)

Pixie

Absolutely.

'65 ffs.

National flags are a useless waste of time - how about we just abandon the idea of a flag altogether?

People put so much emphasis on a piece of fabric that is made in China but someone earning much less than minimum wage.

Why does it need to be more contemporary? Flags tend to be something rooted in tradition rather than contemporary.

well it would have been contemporary at one time

Perhaps I could have been clearer. I would like to see a contemporary design which still reflected our history (there we go - rooted in tradition but still modern).

Pixie

There's no law saying a country has to have a flag, its fucking stupid. But no doubt we'll end up getting the white fern on a black background that has major similarities with a pirate flag lol.

I think that could be a big ask... the easiest way to reflect the British involvement in our history is with... well... the Union Jack, which is not a particularly contemporary design. Don't get me wrong, when we eventually become an independent nation we should drop the Jack.

I dunno, maybe we could reflect the British aspect by retaining the red, white and blue colouring in whatever flag we come up with. I don't see the need to introduce any other colours.

I'm quite fond of the Southern Cross as it is currently depicted and would want to retain that no matter what. It's not the only flag with the Cross, but it's the only one with red stars with a white outline and I think it looks cool.

If I ever get lost, it will show me the way home.

tbh I'd prefer if we had the pot instead of the southern cross :D

Every time this comes up all I really think of is "those Canadian guys did a bang up job with theirs, why can't we fucking pull this off, eh?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Canada

I dunno, I just dont think a maple leaf is going to work for us

lolz

We should ditch the nation state altogether, then we'll only need one flag:

Or just no flag? Flag Flag Flag

No to flags.

^Yer dreamin

Here's another proposed flag:

^^
 

That flag sucks.

Just so long as our new flag isn't the All Blacks logo, that's just a plain silly idea.

Goatse flag

Someone pinch me, the most insightful comment on a thread in the Politics forum is from a Northland roadworker.

i was thinking along the lines of a kiwi shaped fern, so google imaged it n found:

http://magigrapix.deviantart.com/art...-S-C-251984868

but it does look like the kiwi is dead


the kiwi would be the most recognised of our icons overseas

Not to mention the whole fucking thing is utter shit.

This one for me. Has the colours of the Union Jack, the Southern Cross, and the blue of the Pacific.

Another stupid thing we need to update is the national anthem.

This