10 Time; history and future

• Past  About 100 years ago, NZ was given the option of becoming a state within the Commonwealth of Australia and that option may remain open.

The current NZ flag is the old flag of New South Wales, a reflection that NZ was at first administered from that separate colony. That flag, along with scores of others, is a ‘defaced’ variant of the British Naval Blue Ensign flag.

110 years ago, flag design would have been constrained by technical limitations.

When the Royal Navy’s blue ensign was adapted for use by the colonies of Australia and New Zealand, the British Empire was strong. Most of NZ’s trade was with Britain and much of Britain’s economy was integrated with her Empire. Most immigrants came from the UK.

• Present  June 2012 marks the 110th anniversary of our current flag. For 105 years NZ has been a dominion and for the foreseeable future, NZ is an independent nation.

But a distinct identity is yet to be reflected in our flag.

The only element   that relates to NZ is the Southern Cross, and that is shared with Australia. Even the blue background – said to represent our surrounding ocean – is a generalised sea, reflecting British naval origins. Fiji changed their dark-blue flag background to a light blue, the better to represent the Pacific.

Now, more than 50% of Britain’s trade is with the European Union. A change in the flag that removes the Union Jack, would be no more of an anti-British or anti-Monarchist move than was Canada’s adoption in 1965 of the red maple leaf [replacing their red-ensign derivative]. Nonetheless, NZ has grown a long way from its colonial past.

Today we have less expensive and more sophisticated ways of reproducing and distributing even complex patterns. Thus, a detailed coastal outline is unlikely to be the challenge it might have been.

• Future  A new flag is a sensitive matter and the criteria for its selection need to be thought through carefully.


Connection with the United Kingdom is still strong and is likely to remain so. That is true with or without a change in flag; with or without becoming a republic, and with or without any federation with Australia.

We need a flag that will stand the test of time. The safest choice is one that is not based on a fad or feeling and that might lead to a desire for further change in only a few decades’ time.

This proposal is not to anticipate federation with Australia, but nor is it inconsistent with that.
If, in another 110 years, such a federation occurred, a flag based on the shape of our big islands would be at least as relevant as today.
The focus on geography establishes – more clearly than any other concept – that this land has a distinct identity from Australia.