O'Rourke Denis: New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 29 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5489. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): I wanted to talk about clauses 14 and 27 and schedule 2. First of all regarding clause 14 in my previous speech I referred to subclause (3) in which there is a prescription for an official description of the current New Zealand flag and I was saying that it actually needs a lot more than that. It needs information for people—especially young people but all people—on the history and heritage of the current flag. I think it should be explained to people that it is not just by coincidence that we have this flag. It was not just something somebody dreamed up because it looked nice. It actually has a lot of history and heritage with it.It has components. First of all there is the Union Jack. A lot of people do not even know what the Union Jack is that it is actually three other flags put together: St Patrick’s flag a red diagonal on a white background for Ireland; the English St George’s flag an upright red cross on a white background; and the Scottish flag St Andrew’s flag a white diagonal on a blue background. A lot of people do not even know that but also they do not know why there are four stars on a blue background—the Pacific-blue background and the four stars of the Southern Cross representing the Māori navigators who first discovered New Zealand for the human race. All of that heritage should also be explained because it is important. A flag does need to represent what a country is and not be just a pretty design.I also wanted to speak about clause 27 because that refers to the method of voting. Clause 27(1)(a) says that an elector “must mark the voting paper by expressing a first preference for 1 option;” and in paragraph (b) may express other preferences as well. But nowhere is it possible for anyone to express no preference for any of the four options. People simply do not get that choice and they should. The point I am making is that there should be provision for people to say “I don’t want any of these four flags.” and for that to be recorded and for that to be made public because that is actually important. I think that it is very important and that it should say that. It is a real shame that it does not.In any event and I agree with Mr Robertson on this a lot of people are going to make a mess of that particular first referendum ballot because it is not clear what people should say. So some people will also wrongly believe that even if they do not want any of those four preferences they must choose one. Some people will think that and they will wrongly choose one when they need not do so. So I think there is a real problem with understanding as far as the first ballot is concerned.Referring to the second referendum ballot which is in schedule 2 of the bill the question there is: “What is your choice for the New Zealand flag?”. There is an “Option A” and an “Option B” one of which is the current New Zealand flag and the other the alternative chosen as a result of the first referendum.I think this question is the wrong question. It should say for example “Do you want to retain the current New Zealand flag or do you want to have the alternative flag shown?” because that is actually the real choice. It is not just a choice between designs or between “Option A” and “Option B”; it is actually a choice between retaining the current flag or not and it refers back to what I was saying before about the fact that the current flag has with it a lot of heritage and a lot of history. It represents a partnership between what was the British heritage of New Zealand—the British legal system the Westminster style of Government the English language and so on—and the Pacific and Māori culture. That partnership is also contained of course as we all know in the Treaty of Waitangi.So the flag actually does represent New Zealand in terms of that bicultural culture and history. OK I admit also and Nikki Kaye made the point that it is also a multicultural country. But the fundamental culture is that partnership and that is what that flag represents. That is not reflected in the voting paper for the second flag referendum as set out in schedule 2; I believe that to be accurate it should.