O'Rourke Denis: New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 12 March 2015. Volume:703;Page:2229. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O'ROURKE (NZ First): I am really quite saddened to have to speak on this bill today because I and we in New Zealand First do not see why it is needed at all. It is not clear why suddenly this legislation for a new flag has arisen under the leadership of the Prime Minister. The motivation is certainly not clear. For many years there has been sporadic public debate about whether New Zealand should consider changing its flag but it has been at a very very low level and it has nearly always been associated with the republican movement. So is National really just taking the first step towards republicanism? Has it become infected with republicanism and is that what it really is going to do later? Maybe this is just the first step. Or is it a career succession plan for John Key first President of New Zealand? What really is the motivation for this? It is certainly not clear to us.At the very least this is a way of diverting public attention away from much more urgent issues. It is a blue herring. We should be looking much more at spending our energy our money and our efforts on issues like child poverty; a rundown health service in many regions; a 1960s transport system on its last legs; an education system riddled with inequities and misguided investment; an undiversified economy far too dependent on one or two products dairying and tourism and one market China; an out-of-control immigration system resulting in excessive net migration—Paul Foster-Bell: What a load of rubbish.DENIS O'ROURKE: —a worsening housing crisis and the list goes on. If that member thinks it is a load of rubbish he should ask the people of New Zealand because they think those issues are much more—much more—important than a new flag for this country. You have only to ask them to find that out. The Government has appointed a flag consideration panel which it is paying at a rate of I understand somewhere between $600 and $800 per day its purpose being “to lead public engagement and to recommend alternative flag designs for New Zealanders to consider through referendum”. But this is not just a waste of millions of dollars of public money for no public benefit. In fact New Zealanders will not really get to make the decision at all because they will have presented to them only four options actually decided by others. The whole process is being so rushed that it is clear that the Government wants to make sure this is done before the next election for some reason—maybe as John Key’s legacy to New Zealand after he loses that election.Hon Maurice Williamson: Ha ha! In your dreams pal.DENIS O'ROURKE: And we will soon see—and we will soon see. The first step of that will be when the Government loses the Northland by-election in a few days’ time. The bill establishes a process for the holding of two postal referendums the first to determine which alternative flag design is preferred from only four alternatives and the second to determine whether that alternative or the current flag should be the New Zealand flag. That is the final part of the referendum. So there are two referendums effectively. If the voters decide in the second referendum that the flag is to change then legislation to actually put that into effect would have to follow.Although New Zealand First is usually in favour of referendums of this kind on matters that the people should decide as I have already said on this occasion the people will not in these referendums actually be deciding themselves because the Government has got it the wrong way around. Before spending millions of dollars on the two referendums planned there should be only one referendum before any panels are appointed or other expenses are incurred. The one referendum should start out by simply asking a simple question: do you want a new national flag to replace the current one? That is all we need to ask for a start. That should be the question. That is the primary question and that is the one that is being asked second in these two referendums and it should be first. And only if the answer is yes should we spend money on taking the matter any further. In actual fact as Phil Goff has said you could have both questions asked in one referendum but this Government wants a double diversion and to double the cost. How silly can you get?The process set out in this bill appears to be a way of the Government rigging the result actually influencing the public and making sure that the public do what the Government says. I do not think they will anyway but this is what the Government is trying to do. It is trying to pre-empt the real question which is “Do New Zealanders want a new flag or not?” by producing four flags that other people have chosen to be thrust upon New Zealanders. It is a back to front process. It is a blatant means of trying to influence the result. It is trickery but Kiwis will see through it. It is transparently clear that the Government and Mr Key are out of touch with what Kiwis want. This is not what they want. There are a lot of things they do want as I have said but this is not anywhere near a priority for the great majority of New Zealanders.In addition to that no detailed information has been given to people about the full cost. The first $26 million will be just the beginning. There will be many many more costs amounting to tens of millions of dollars after that because we will need to not just change flags on official places and also all military flags at embassies overseas and for the armed forces but pay many other costs of official publications and emblems. Even drivers’ licences and especially passports will have to be changed to catch up with the changes. So the real costs have not been identified and are huge. That money is better spent elsewhere on new homes on education and on better health services including New Zealand First’s new bill to give SuperGold cardholders three free doctors visits per year. The people who will get that would much rather have it than a new flag I am sure.There is also another very important reason for us to oppose this bill and this is that it will betray the men and women who fought and died under this flag our flag in many wars. We had 100000 men go to the First World War from New Zealand and 18000 of them died—not under the flag as one speaker said but they were buried under the flag. The respect that the current flag generates throughout the world will be lost because the new flag will take decades upon decades to even be recognised. Our current flag is rooted in history and that history needs to be respected and preserved. We need not adopt some fad—the fad of design this year or next year—for New Zealand’s flag. We have a wonderful flag which is respected which is recognised and which is New Zealand’s flag. It does not need redesigning. Everybody knows it. Everybody respects it. What else could you possibly want from a flag? What are we going to gain from a new one apart from the expenditure of a lot of money just to make one party feel better and to try to divert people from the real issues? This is not just “a flag of historical significance” as it will become if this bill is passed—because that is what it says it will do—it will really mean that this flag will be lost to us for ever.There is no genuine or significant public pressure for this change of flag nor for the flawed process to be followed. Instead there are much more important constitutional issues for us to be looking at such as the Māori seats a written constitution the size of Parliament and the size of electorates the length of the parliamentary term the Māori electoral option and participation and the role of the Treaty of Waitangi. Those are all genuine constitutional matters that are urgent but what is the Government doing about them? All it has said as a result of the recent review is “Let the conversation continue.” or in other words “Let’s do nothing about all of that. Instead let’s have a diversion just to change the flag.” That is not good enough and New Zealand First will not countenance it.