Little Andrew: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 23 September 2015. Volume:709;Page:6997. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): The very defensive National members opposite who contribute so little to this important debate on a very important issue have reluctantly continued to contribute very little. But this is an important issue. I want to speak to the amendment in my name which is about giving the full range of choice to New Zealanders in this referendum. The issue for New Zealand and indeed the issue for the Government for the last few weeks has not just been about a fifth option. It has not just been about Red Peak. It has been about a growing disillusionment amongst New Zealanders about a sense of manipulation and about a referendum that offers them no real choice at all. That really came to the fore when the Government released the four final candidates if you like for alternative flags which did not provide much choice at all. Three of the four options are virtually identical apart from a change in colour and the existence or otherwise of some stars. The fourth option is a koru flag which is quite different from the others. But out of a long list of 40 and a much longer list even before that that is all the Government could come up with? And still New Zealanders had not been asked whether or not they even wanted to change the flag.This amendment is about restoring at least some dignity to the process giving some dignity to New Zealanders who just want the courtesy of being asked that question. What could possibly be wrong with asking that question—giving New Zealanders a choice—of whether or not they even want the flag to be changed? That has been the fundamental error of judgment by John Key and his Government. He thought he could just sort of railroad through this process.Brett Hudson: He’s slow on the uptake this one.ANDREW LITTLE: You see the problem with the National members opposite is that they will not take to their feet and argue a case. They will barrack and give cheap calls across the House because they are terrified of the people of New Zealand. They are terrified of giving New Zealanders a real choice and a real say about whether they want to change the flag. That is how scared they are. They are happy to cheer and play along with their leader in their manipulated process because he declared from on high that he wanted a new flag with a silver fern on it. That is not where New Zealanders are at. New Zealanders deserve more respect and they deserve more courtesy than that.This is not about any individual politician’s personal choice about the flag. This is about respecting all New Zealanders. When we are asking them to enter into a debate about their emblem the insignia that represents them around the world they ought to be treated with respect and dignity. This Government has not done that. Members opposite fail to accept that at their peril. New Zealanders want to be treated with courtesy and we do that when we give them the choice of answering the question: “Do you want to change the flag or not?”. New Zealanders do not ask for much but being treated with courtesy by this House by members of this House and by the political process is just one small thing that they ask.When it comes to such an important choice of what sort of flag we have then being given that choice to make about whether to change the flag—being asked to make that decision—is absolutely crucial. That is why I have put up this amendment to allow that choice to be added into the process. I was very clear. I offered this to the Government last week but not as part of some grubby deal that meant we would put up a proposal and make a deal with the Government that we would not vote for New Zealanders to have a real say. We are not into that kind of grubby backroom deal that others in this House are into. We are into giving New Zealanders the choice about whether to change the flag as we have right through this process through the cross-party process through the input and the submissions we have had at the select committee—every opportunity we have had we have been absolutely consistent about it.If we are to run a referendum like this and allow New Zealanders to make a decision on their flag our national flag the thing that we stand under the thing that we hold high when we are on the international stage and the flag that so many Kiwis wrap round themselves when they at their Anzac Day events in Parliament Square in London when they are in New York when they are in Sydney or Melbourne or wherever they are in the world and they look to the New Zealand flag we should take this seriously because New Zealanders take it seriously. This is about giving choice and dignity to New Zealanders. New Zealanders deserve nothing less.