Flag debate: MPs should stay out of debate says campaigner

Lloyd Morrison has been campaigning for a new flag for years. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Business leader Lloyd Morrison doesn't buy the politicians' argument that there are more important things to worry about than changing the flag.

"Why don't they just appoint a panel and then have nothing more to do with it? They shouldn't own the process anyway."

Mr Morrison, a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, has been at the forefront of the movement to stir debate on the national flag since 2004.

The following year, he tried to get enough signatures to force a citizens-initiated referendum, but failed.

He believes it is an important issue that is linked to self-determination.

"We had a very high standard of living as a colony of the UK, and that started to change when Britain joined the EU. People say that they would like New Zealand the way it was, but they don't realise that that was essentially a gift from the UK, selling our primary produce at a high margin.

"Self-determination for New Zealand is not a choice, it's a reality. No one is going to look after us."

The flag was a great platform for debate because everyone could participate. "It's egalitarian. If you ask the average person on the street about the foreshore and seabed, it may be critical to New Zealand but most people can't engage on it ... They feel like they are unqualified. The great thing about the flag debate is that it's inclusive."

He prefers a process that involves a panel of representative New Zealanders - not politicians - who would consult widely and over a decent length of time. "The process is so much more important. If people felt they changed the flag and there was a debate about where New Zealand was going, that would be empowering."

Mr Morrison was diagnosed with cancer just over a year ago and, because of medical complications, he shouldn't be alive.

"I'm happy to be alive," the 52-year-old father of five said yesterday.

"If I'm in a 15-round fight, I'm probably about halfway through. I'm ahead on points but I have a long way to go. I am still on treatment and I will be on treatment for a long time."

Mr Morrison is still involved in Morrison & Co and NZX-listed Infratil, which he founded in 1994.

"I do believe that the flag should connect to images that are already clearly part of New Zealand, some connection to the silver fern or the kiwi or the koru or even the Southern Cross, though I'm less enamoured with the Southern Cross because there are other countries that identify with it.

"The day after a new flag was chosen, there would be a real buzz. People would feel like they had participated in it."