The New York Times has thrown its weight behind a change to the New Zealand flag.
Yesterday's editorial, titled "Maybe One Less Union Jack'' backs Prime Minister John Key's stance for a different flag design.
''(The) flag proclaims New Zealand as a South Pacific outpost of the British Empire, which
is precisely why Mr Key wants to abandon it,'' the piece said.
"He thinks it shackles his country to its colonial past and is unrepresentative of the racial and cultural diversity of 21st-century New Zealand.
"Those on Mr. Key's side argue, too, that their flag is nondescript and derivative; it looks very much like Australia's flag, for which it is often mistaken.''
