Mitchell Clayton: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Clayton: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 23 September 2015. Volume:709;Page:6995. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): It is a great honour and a great pleasure to stand up and take a call on behalf of New Zealand First the only party in real opposition to the debacle of a flag debate that is going on in front of us—here in front of all New Zealanders of whom 70 percent are now coming out strongly in opposition to the process that is taking place right here in front of us today.If it took a few people on Facebook to tick a like and to get in behind something—and there are 20000-odd people in support of it—then surely the groundswell the tsunami of support against what is taking place here should be enough for this Government to listen and actually bring this bill back to the House and say: “Let’s scrap this flag referendum altogether.”? I can see the Minister in the chair the Hon Jo Goodhew shaking her head like this is some sort of daft idea but I have to say that this here in Part 1 is all about the interpretation of this bill.When I look at the opposition that we have had all year long—in fact for about the last 7 years that this Government has been in Government—there has been opposition to just about everything that the Greens have come out and said yet today we have heard this remarkable change of opinion this replacement because this Government knows that this referendum is in some severe trouble. It is trying to force it down New Zealanders’ throats to somehow change what we have grown up with understood loved and been supportive of—that is the New Zealand flag that we are very proud of which I for one am 100 percent supportive of keeping and so too are all of our New Zealand First members and the New Zealand First Party. It is a crying shame that the support out there to can this referendum—or at least to conduct it in a democratic fashion—has been overwhelmingly flipped on its head because this Government understands that with the way it sits this change has got absolutely no chance of going through.The Greens have been the patsy of this Government—to be able to pull off their idea of throwing in Red Peak. We have seen some ghastly sorts of alternatives out there in the media and on Google pages already showing what this Red Peak flag nonsense is going to look like on the world stage. I have to say that Gareth Hughes’s amendment to bring this bill forward to the House and have it absorbed by the Government has some serious concerns because I can see that ultimately the Government members are going to use the Greens to fall on their sword for it because this referendum will go nowhere. The absolute vast majority of rank and file New Zealanders see this for what it is and we are not happy with it. Denis O’Rourke an honourable member from New Zealand First has got a number of amendments in—some amendments that we will certainly be supporting—and when the debate gets to clauses 1 and 2 we will certainly be speaking to those this evening.It defies belief really that we have got ourselves into this situation and we keep using the word “democracy”. From the changing of opinions of the Prime Minister himself who has been caught on TV3 and TV1 news talking about there being absolutely zero chance of the Red Peak flag being brought in we have this flip. This complete and utter change at the eleventh hour because of the uncertainty that this flag referendum is going to create creates some concern because it just goes to show that we cannot trust what is being said out there—that at the toss of a coin or at the flip of a hat we can actually have a Government turn round and go against something that it had emphatically made clear to the entire country would not come into play.What is going to stop the Government turning round at the eleventh hour after the first referendum and saying: “Actually we have made our decision. We are not even going to have the second referendum.”? It would not surprise me or the rest of New Zealand that this was the sort of behaviour of a Government that is not following an open and transparent line. It is not following democracy and this is just another point that proves that very fact. Thank you I will be taking more calls as the evening goes on.