New Zealand Votes to Keep Its Flag

[Antarctic]

Virtually everyone I knew voted for the new flag so I wasn't surprised that the final vote was much closer than many anticipated.

To a degree it doesn't matter as the official NZ flag seems to be seldom used by ordinary kiwis...it's interesting to see the Silver Fern is ubiquitous at sporting events and on the backpacks of young travellers.It is the de facto flag.

The old flag offends me because of the Union Jack...we are not English and should have a flag which represents us and not some long gone British Empire.More and more  Kiwis are no longer of English descent.
The confusion with the Australian flag is annoying...I'd love to have a flag which was instantly identifiable and would have been happy with any alternative showing the Silver Fern although my preference would be for a simple Fern on a black background which is the most common flag seen here.

I think the vote would have gone the other way had it not been for the hypocrisy of the Labour Party and the Greens (which I normally support.)
John Key was right to expect that both parties would support the change as they have both expressed such views in the past.He hoped that it would be a non-political issue.

However the opposition parties have seen this as an opportunity to gain a small win over the frustratingly unassailable Key and campaigned against the change.
Consequently we've had the weird result of some of the most conservative rural parts of the country voting for the change and the liberal latte belt voting against it....quite bizarre!!

Their failure to support what they believe has probably set the issue back a decade or two but it will happen...perhaps when we become a republic.