Hayes Joanne: New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 12 March 2015. Volume:703;Page:2231. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National): I am pleased to stand and take a call on the New Zealand Flag Referendums Bill in its first reading. Yes it has been rather entertaining listening to the member from across the way over there talking about the flag. You know Mr O’Rourke this is the time for you to perhaps put your mailbox with a flag emblem on it up for consideration because I know that that is exactly what you would like to do when saying that. When the National Party came into Government—Denis O'Rourke: What a load of nonsense.JOANNE HAYES: —listen listen—we made the commitment that we would hold a binding referendum on the New Zealand flag. That is what we said we were going to do and we are committed to doing that. We are determined to have this flag debate and we are determined to have this referendum so let us start by looking at everything that has been said in the House today.I was quite entertained when the member Mr Goff turned round and said in this House today that our Prime Minister John Key was having this flag debate because he wanted it to go down in history as one of his key things to do as a Prime Minister. But Mr Goff forgets that the thing that our Prime Minister will go down in history for—one of the many things—is that he wiped the floor with Phil Goff in 2011 when we won that election. So that is one of the many things for which he will go down in history in his success as our Prime Minister.So I just want to look at our flag because I want to say that we have had a long history of flags in this country—changing flags using flags and having flags.Denis O'Rourke: There is not a long history of changing flags.JOANNE HAYES: There is. I had two grandfathers who were in the Māori Pioneer Battalion and who went to war in World War I. Yes they went in under the Union Jack but when they came back King George designed a flag to give to the Māori Pioneer Battalion but it was not recalled. It was called the king’s colour. It was designed and had on it big areas of red colour that recognised the blood that was shed in the First World War. So you know when you start to talk about that that is when I am reminded about that Māori Pioneer Battalion flag. It was one of 13 flags that were awarded to units of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the First World War.But unfortunately the king’s colour flag was not consecrated presented or paraded because the Māori Pioneer Battalion was not recalled as I said. So we had to wait. It went into storage. It was put into storage by the last commander of the battalion and in 1939 his widow presented the king’s colour flag to the Minister of Native Affairs back then hoping that it would be used for the 28th Māori Battalion. If you look at a few articles around that you will find that that flag lay in the museum until 1988 when the last commander of the 28th Māori Battalion Sir James Hēnare and others looked for it and brought it back. It was consecrated in 1993.Denis O'Rourke: It’s not a flag.JOANNE HAYES: This is all relevant to a flag referendum. It is all relevant. Look at your speaking notes Mr O’Rourke if you have any. We are lucky to have some.Let us have a look at the Māori flag—OK—the Confederation of the United Tribes of Aotearoa. In 1834 25 chiefs from the far north were called to Waitangi—James Shaw: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I beg your pardon. I am sorry I am having real trouble hearing the member who is speaking at the moment and I wonder whether you could ask the House to quieten down and allow her to speak.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Well I am a judge of that. So long as I can hear—[Interruption] Order! So long as I can hear what is being said; I am the judge of that. But I do ask that the barracking across the cross benches should be lower than that and I ask Jo Hayes to continue.JOANNE HAYES: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I do not like yelling in the House either to be heard. As I say in 1834 25 chiefs from the far north gathered in Waitangi to choose a flag to represent New Zealand. This flag was actually initiated by James Busby—are we all listening? That meeting included 10 British commanders; so it was not just 25 chiefs sitting at the table. There were 10 British commanders and personnel from three American ships who attended that occasion.So the 25 chiefs chose out of the designs the Methodist one which became the flag of the Confederation of the United Tribes of Aotearoa and everybody knows that one because it is on a white backing. The Union Jack as we all know came into being post the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi yet we still keep that Confederation of the United Tribes flag for the iwi. New Zealand uses six other flags—there are six other flags we use. We have the Queen’s personal flag we use the Governor-General’s flag—Denis O'Rourke: We use one.JOANNE HAYES: These are all for occasions Mr O’Rourke. We use the New Zealand red ensign which was adopted in 1903 for merchant ships. These are all flags that signal great things that have happened in the history of this country and its development. We use the New Zealand white ensign which is the British one. We use the Royal New Zealand Air Force ensign and the New Zealand civil air ensign. Then of course there is the plethora of flags that iwi use. I am from the Whanganui River and when I go up into Ngāti Rangi—you want to see the plethora of flags that they fly. These are the flags and some of them have the little ensign that shows British rule but most of them are ensigns that represent their history so this is very important to them as well.What I also want to say is that my grandfathers—yes they fought under two flags; they did do that but I can stand here and argue that they would not have refused to fight because of the colour of the flag the shape of the flag. They went over there because they represented this country. They fought for our freedom; that is what they fought for. They fought for our freedom so our grandchildren can live in a world that is peaceful. That is what I can say and there is nobody in this House or outside this House who would refuse to do that because of the debate over this flag today—no they would not.As I am saying this whole debate around the flag is a good debate. It is the referendum that this Government said we would do and we are doing it. We are doing it we are listening we will be listening and it is all laid out within the bill.Ron Mark: No no no you’re not going to listen.JOANNE HAYES: Mr Mark you can sit over there and you can say “No no no no.” but we will be listening. I am sure that if my grandfathers were alive today they would be saying to me: “Mokopuna make sure that we have this flag so that when an Australian Prime Minister goes overseas he is not welcomed by a flag that is New Zealand’s flag because people cannot tell the difference between the Australian flag and the New Zealand flag.” It was written up in the media that that was what had happened. We want a flag that is representative of all of us and it is going to be the people’s choice as to how we do that and how that happens. I mean to say it is shameful when another Prime Minister goes into a foreign country and that country has the New Zealand flag to welcome him.So when you sit here in this House and say that everybody knows our flag they do not know our flag. We need a flag that resembles who we are so that everybody in this world can see that we are Kiwi we are the silver fern—we are all of those things. We need a flag that when it is raised will send chills up people’s spines and will bring tears not only to those watching the flag go up but to those who are watching them. That is the type of flag we need. We need a flag that tells the world that we are Aotearoa New Zealand. That is what we need. We need a flag where we can all stand proud and nobody in the whole globe is going to be confused over where it comes from.When I listened to the member of the Greens Kennedy Graham talk about the Canadian maple leaf everybody knows that. That is the type of thing we need so people of this globe know where we come from. They need to know that the flag represents people who are strong independent and believe in freedom. That is the type of flag we are looking at and we need a flag that represents pure New Zealand because that is what we are—ake ake ake āmine I tell you now.In closing I strongly urge all New Zealanders to take the opportunity to participate in this referendum. Do not sit back—participate in it. Participate in it and have your say because that is what we have asked for. We are committed to that as a Government and we are going to continue to drive that. I am very proud to stand here today and commend this bill to the House and I also urge everybody throughout Aotearoa New Zealand watching this debate to please participate. Kia ora.