The government's Flag Consideration Panel, which includes Rod Drury and Julie Christie, gets down to business.
Chris Keall discusses the reaction to the new flag design website on NBR Radio and on-demand on MyNBR Radio.
The government's Flag Consideration Panel, which includes luminaries such as Rod Drury and Julie Christie, is getting down to business. Today it launched a free-ranging website, www.standfor.co.nz, where people can discuss what New Zealanders stand for. It also invites people to upload their own flag designs.
Answers so far are positive. Various contributors so far say they stand for harmony, freedom, natural beauty, animals, opportunity, friends, family, the environment, the All Blacks, Kiwi innovation and smiles. It's all uplifting stuff but arguably doesn't help narrow down debate.
At the very least, the site is democratic. A broad range of feedback is being posted, including a lot of comments hostile to the very process of changing the flag.
"I stand for not squandering money and keeping the existing flag," reads a post by "Santa".
Another contributor, "Kiwi" weighs in with: "I stand for a country of Tradition. Spend the money on EARTHQUAKE REPAIR :(".
Two postal referendums are scheduled.
The first, November 20 to December 11 this year, will ask voters to rank four flag alternatives selected by the Flag Consideration Panel from most to least-preferred.
The second, March 3 to March 24, 2016, will ask voters to choose between the current New Zealand flag and the preferred alternative design selected in the first referendum. The results of both referendums are binding.
