New Zealanders are to vote on a change of flag before the 2017 elections. Prime Minister John Key said that he believed the current flag symbolised “a colonial era that has passed”. He added: “We want a design that says ‘New Zealand’, whether it’s stitched on a Kiwi traveller’s backpack outside a bar in Croatia, [or] on a flagpole outside the United Nations.”
Labour leader David Cunliffe has given his support to the referendum.