NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Budget 2025
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Grant McLachlan: NZ's national colour is black

By Grant McLachlan
Herald online·
7 Jul, 2015 12:34 AM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Opinion

The discussion over whether New Zealand should change its flag should be a time to discuss whether we have outgrown our colonial ties with the Union Jack. Instead, the current squabble makes me question whether we have grown up.

Many opinion leaders seem bent on killing the debate by reframing the issue from one of national identity to one of process and cost.

None has yet reminded us that the dual referendum process differs little from that used to decide our electoral system. Although that started with a Royal Commission, the rest is the same.

The first referendum will provide a range of alternative options and the second will be a run-off between the current flag and the most popular alternative.

Few commentators give John Key credit for making the process so democratic and transparent. Australia, after Confederation, held a media-run competition and came up with their current flag in 1901. The next year, like a typical little brother, we adopted and adapted Australia's Southern Cross design without any debate.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Sixty-two years later, Canada followed a six week 'consultative' process, after which the political battle lines were drawn between the Prime Minister's preferred flag and the George Stanley design supported by the Opposition. The Stanley design won and the design was approved - not by public vote, but by Parliamentary proclamation.

The instigator for Canada changing their flag was the Egyptians not wanting the Union Jack on any flag flown in the Sinai during UN peacekeeping after the Suez Crisis in 1956. New Zealand troops adopted, and have worn ever since, a badge of the kiwi - on black.

Most of the other former colonies of the British Empire have adopted a unique flag. Only 22 retain the Union Jack. Of these, only Australia has a larger population than ours.

So, while other countries, like Fiji, consider their own flag options, they are watching what we are doing. They must be appalled. We should be embarrassed.

The cost of our process enrages many. "Why don't we spend that on child poverty?" the critics chant in union-orchestrated unison. Their emotion obscures the fact that government spends $152,000 a minute ($45,000 of that on a world class welfare system) and $26 million equates to less than three hours' spending.

Discover more

Opinion

This exercise in flag folly is stark waving mad

02 Jun 09:30 PM
Opinion

Peter Bromhead: Flagging it

04 Jun 05:00 PM
New Zealand

Is this NZ's next flag?

25 Jun 10:11 AM
New Zealand|politics

Flag referendum: Current process to stay

29 Jun 07:57 AM

All the Government needs to do to neutralize this objection is to recover the $26 million by building a levy/royalty into the cost of every flag. This would be like charging a passport fee to cover administrative costs. Once the target is reached, any extra revenue could be allocated to child poverty or ensuring that the Waitangi Treaty grounds are free for all - a win/win.

But no, here we are bickering on blogs and shouting over each other on talkback in t-shirt slogans. If the flag debate was a football game, we'd be whinging about the ticket price, booing the ref, and kicking the player without the ball when what we should be doing is taking a side, playing for it, or cheering for it.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

As the author of a book about World War II, I have interviewed and consulted with war veterans, war criminals, war widows, widows of executed war criminals, constituents, submitters, political rivals, witnesses, victims, and leading experts.

I have found empathy and fact gathering to be essential elements in forming opinions.

The RSA's submission substituted fact with emotion. Not one New Zealand unit badge or war grave has ever featured a Southern Cross or Union Jack. Instead they display the silver fern.

While only one New Zealand flag ever crossed the sand at ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli, every New Zealand lemon squeezer hat was adorned with the twin silver ferns of the New Zealand Army cap badge.

The first time the New Zealand flag was flown in battle was from HMS Achilles during the Battle of the River Plate in 1939.

Maori leaders should be embracing the silver fern emblem. Maori came up with it - the koru unfurled and mature.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The New Zealand Native Rugby Team first wore the silver fern on black, which then became our national colour. The fern's root was the staple Maori diet, its silvery fronds a means of guidance under the moonlight. The fern was medicine, shelter, and together with its coiled baby koru, the mainstay of many ancient traditional patterns.

The colour of our flag shouldn't be an issue. Thirty-five other nations have red, white, and blue flags.

New Zealand is the only country whose national colour is black, and every other country recognizes this.

"But the ISIS flag is black!" some bleat. True. And the Te Tino Rangatiratanga flag is red, white and black - like the flags of Hitler's Nazis, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, and the most of the problem states of the Middle East.

Our current flag shares the same colours with those of the American Confederacy, Kim Jong-Un's North Korea and Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Our black sports uniforms have an intimidating advantage over opponents. Black is James Bond stylish, and on a flag it shines. No two colours contrast and stand out more than black and white.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

No leader worthy of the name surrenders his nation's colours to a bunch of medieval terrorists. Black and white were our colours long before ISIS pinched them, and we can be confident that a black and white New Zealand flag will long outlast that murderous regime.

After all the moaners have exhausted themselves with their various distractions, constructive debaters will focus on the elements we want in our flag. We don't need to borrow other nations' colours or invent new emblems. We have our national colours. We have our national emblem.

We only need to debate which version of silver fern to use, set against which arrangement of black and white.

Former US President Woodrow Wilson wisely said, "If you want to make enemies, try to change something." In the case of the flag debate, we are our own worst enemy. If the present gutter level of debate continues, it will prove that we haven't grown up, and we deserve to be stuck with a paternalistic colonial relic as our national standard.

Grant McLachlan is an author and a former Parliamentary researcher.

Debate on this article is now closed.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New ZealandUpdated

Widespread internet outages reported across New Zealand

20 May 08:52 AM
New ZealandUpdated

'Straight-out thuggery': Boxing chief slams Dan Hooker-backed $50k fight event

20 May 08:35 AM
Politics

NZ scraps $100m a year tax after Donald Trump's 'extortion' claims

20 May 08:10 AM

The Hire A Hubby hero turning handyman stereotypes on their head

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Widespread internet outages reported across New Zealand

Widespread internet outages reported across New Zealand

20 May 08:52 AM

Customers across the country began reporting problems about 7.30pm.

'Straight-out thuggery': Boxing chief slams Dan Hooker-backed $50k fight event

'Straight-out thuggery': Boxing chief slams Dan Hooker-backed $50k fight event

20 May 08:35 AM
NZ scraps $100m a year tax after Donald Trump's 'extortion' claims

NZ scraps $100m a year tax after Donald Trump's 'extortion' claims

20 May 08:10 AM
'Heartbroken': Father jailed after breaking baby's leg, arms, ribs and skull

'Heartbroken': Father jailed after breaking baby's leg, arms, ribs and skull

20 May 08:00 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP