Moroney Sue: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 23 September 2015. Volume:709;Page:7016. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on Part 2 of the New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill which is being passed under urgency in this House. I just want to say at the outset how disappointing it is. I used to really admire the Green Party because it always voted relentlessly against taking urgency in this House. It used to relentlessly take a principled position but with this issue it has completely sold out that principle which I think is rather sad because it is not an issue of much principle at all.In fact in Part 2 we see that what the Green Party is after—that is to try to get Red Peak on the ballot paper—is not a guarantee at all. It is not a guarantee. If the Green Party felt that its job was to bail out the National Government from the problem it faced let us just examine for a minute what the problem was that the National Government faced. The problem it faced was being out of step with the majority of New Zealanders. So here is the Green Party coming to the rescue of the National Government rescuing it from the opinion—Denis O’Rourke: Bizarre.SUE MORONEY: —of the vast majority of New Zealanders. It is bizarre quite frankly—trying somehow to save the Government from its own people. I just think that that is a very odd thing but I have a solution—if that is what the Green Party was actually trying to do. Here is the solution and I think that this is the solution that can fit the desire of every party in this debate. The solution is this: make one of those five flags the current New Zealand flag. If that flag were put in the first referendum then New Zealanders would have a genuine choice in the very first referendum and we would not have to waste money on the second referendum. People would have four of the flags and one of them could be Red Peak. The other three could be one of the silver fern versions from Kyle—I have forgotten his name—Iain Lees-Galloway: Lockwood.SUE MORONEY: —Lockwood and the other two options plus Red Peak plus the current New Zealand flag. That could still be done under Part 2. The New Zealand Government could still do that and save the taxpayer an awful lot of money because if those were the five options that were put before the New Zealand public then people could express their view. We know that 70 percent of New Zealanders do not want to change the flag so 70 percent of people would go into that first referendum they would tick the current New Zealand flag and it would all be sorted—all sorted in one easy motion.Part 2 actually allows that to happen. I urge the Government—because it will now be in the hands of Cabinet to determine which flags are the five flags after this legislation is passed—to make sure that one of those five options is the current New Zealand flag. If it does not do that here is what is going to happen next. Already I am informed that there is a person outside our Parliament today with yet another flag option that they are wanting to put up. It is not even one of the 40; it is a completely different version. That is what is going to start happening next. New Zealanders are going to sense weakness in their Government and they are going to say: “Oh actually let’s start promoting yet another flag and another flag and another flag.” The whole process is going to become more and more of a shambles.The sad thing is that this should have been a nation-defining moment for our country but it has become a complete shambles because of the desire of our Prime Minister to turn it into his own vanity project—his own vanity project. That is what has got in the way.I was disheartened to hear in the course of this debate the Minister of Education admit that she encouraged schools to do projects on the flag thereby driving clickbait—using New Zealand students our children as clickbait for the website.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Part 2—Part 2.SUE MORONEY: Thank you Mr Chair. How it relates to Part 2 is that we are now in a situation where the Government is scrambling to try to actually save this shambles of a process which has been of its own design—it has been of its own design. No one else has forced it into this. Although I have to say that yesterday I was seeking a call on Part 1 and I was wanting to get the call but I was also a little worried because yesterday—talk about strange coincidences—I just happened to decide not knowing what was about to happen in the course of the day to wear a necklace that had a silver fern on it. I was worried that because I had worn a necklace with a silver fern on it somehow the Prime Minister would try to make it my fault that this had turned into a shambles because that is what he is inclined to do. He is inclined to try to blame everyone else for his shambles and his shambles alone.