Parata Hekia: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 23 September 2015. Volume:709;Page:6991. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker otirā tēnā tātou i tēnei pō.[Greetings Mr Assistant Speaker but at the same time acknowledgments to us this evening.]I want to take the opportunity of this debate in the House to go unequivocally on record that I am absolutely in favour of a change for our flag. Moreover I consider that the process that has been comprehensively put before New Zealanders is a process that is actually modelling the principles of modern democracy. We are one of the few countries in the world where a flag change has occurred where New Zealanders in our case have the opportunity not only to say which flag they want but to get choices before a final decision is made. Many other countries have actually arbitrarily decided for their citizens what the symbols are that should represent them but our Government with the support of Parliament invested in an independent process that sets up the opportunity for New Zealanders not only to say what they chose but also to submit their own examples of what they think are the symbols and the colours that represent and resonate with New Zealanders today.I am proud to be in a Government that values democracy so much. Of course the Labour Opposition members naturally have an embedded heritage of ever finely slicing and redistributing so the argument about whether or not there should be two votes rather than one is just slicing and dicing. We are not afraid to give the opportunity for New Zealanders to make a choice. We are not afraid of that. In the same way the bill tonight is a responsive—Hon Trevor Mallard: Kindergarten teachers are being fired all over Wellington and this member wants to talk about the flag.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Please we are talking about the flag. In the same way the bill tonight is responsive to the will of the people that a further flag be included. Of course democracy does allow for fools to shout across the House rather than listen to the discussion. I think it is time for a change. I think that 150 years ago—Hon Trevor Mallard: Well the people don’t. The vast majority of people don’t want to change it.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Well we do not know whether people think that or not until they have the opportunity. Taihoa kia mārama taku whakamāratanga ki a koe. [Hold on and I will make my explanation clear to you.]Clayton Mitchell: That is arrogance right there because you want a say.Hon HEKIA PARATA: No I want every New Zealander to have the opportunity to have a change—not to be shouted down by people who have a particular position. They are likely to have a variety of views and they—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! I will ask the member to tone down those comments. Those interjections are unreasonable and unparliamentary so you calm them down.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. That is exactly the point—that New Zealanders should have the opportunity to say what it is that they do or do not want. I am taking that opportunity as a New Zealander to say what I do want.I think that we have moved on significantly. We are a modern nation. We are small we are smart and we are sassy. We should take the opportunity to choose the symbols that represent who we are today and looking forward into the future. We should take the opportunity to think about what those symbols are. I am in favour of the fern being included. My husband who himself has been a professional soldier has written extensively about the history of the symbolism of the fern in New Zealand’s military history. It is on our Commonwealth graves. Last weekend I was down in Dunedin visiting my father’s grave—himself a returned serviceman—and the ferns are on his plaque. My husband tells me that he did not fight for the flag; he fought for the soldiers in his platoon and he fought for his country and he fought for values the very ones that underpin the modern democracy that New Zealand is.I think that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and as Minister of Education I absolutely encourage schools to be debating this. I absolutely encourage this because the New Zealand curriculum talks about the importance of symbol and text talks about our place in the world talks about what the Kiwi values are that distinguish us from other countries and talks about our membership of the Commonwealth but distinguishes us as independent players ourselves. New Zealand deserves to have a flag that is resonant of who we are today and into the future. That does not mean we get amnesia about what our his and her stories have been but rather we carry them forward proudly into the future and we take with that the symbols that we think today represent New Zealand. Future generations may make a different decision but today now this year and early next year we have the opportunity to make this decision for ourselves. By the way it is not an either/or debate—that we either debate the other big issues that confront us or we debate the flag. We are a plural democracy. We are capable of debates on many things at once and this is one of them.Again in education we deliver the national curriculum. Each school delivers it in their own particular way but they do it in the context of identity language and culture. After all is that not what a flag is a symbol of—our identity language and culture and who we are in all our colourful diversity? Would we not want in the panoply of flags for New Zealand’s to stand out which it does not at present? This bill is the opportunity for us to have a flag that speaks forthrightly of who we are but more important it is the opportunity to make a choice. Kia ora tātou.