PM gets a grilling from intermediate audience

Prime Minister John Key with Tauranga Intermiedate School student leaders (left to right) Libby Matthews, Lucy Jensen, Tess Esterman, Jip Haitsma, Tai Hemana and Joe Cook. Photo/Stuart Whitaker

Tauranga students are clued up on national and world events if a Qand A with Prime Minister John Key last week is any guide.

Faced with questions from the floor during a Tauranga Intermediate School assembly, and then from a more select group of student leaders, the PM wasn't given an easy ride.

Some answers, like his age (53) and the number of houses he owns (five), were easy to answer, but students also pressed him on the flag debate, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and the Russian veto of an international tribunal being set up by the UN Security Council to prosecute the people who shot down flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Changing the flag was something several students were keen to discuss.

The Prime Minister explained the referendum process - with voters first being asked to rank four options in order of preference then, at a second referendum, asked to choose the existing flag or the most popular alternative.

He was then asked why the referenda wouldn't be held the other way around. "If I say to New Zealanders 'do you want to change the flag?' half of the country will say 'yes', but unless you can actually show them what the alternative looks like, you can't be sure.

Lots of countries change their flags but you've got to know what you're changing to."

He says he believes the flag should include the silver fern. Unlike the proposal to change the flag, he does not believe the national anthem will be changed, saying it was an issue of less importance.

"The flag is more about national identity, national pride and patriotism - it is much more on display than the national anthem."

He told students that being away from family was the hardest part of being Prime Minster, that his mother inspired him and that he had had to get used to people not liking him.