Against an informed choice

The Herald reports:

New Zealand First is supporting a campaign for the referendum on changing the flag to first ask whether people want it changed at all.

Winston Peters said his party was backing a “fight for the flag” campaign by the Returned and Services Association (RSA).

“New Zealand First backs the RSA’s call for the first referendum to simply ask, ‘Do you want to change the flag?’ If the majority say ‘no’ then that should be it,” Mr Peters said.

The RSA and Winston are against changing the flag (as is their right), so they want a referendum process that will result in no change.

Basically they want a blind vote, where people don’t even know what the alternate design is. They’re scared that if New Zealanders get to vote on an alternate design vs current design, the public may vote for change. So they’re trying to change the process to stop there being an informed vote.

The Government got re-elected with a referendum as an election promise. I believe they should keep their promise. And I think New Zealanders deserve a referendum that is meaningful – ie a vote between two flags – the current one, and a proposed new one.

Above is the old flag of Canada, and the new one. I doubt even 1% of Canadians would now ever want to go back to the old flag, even though it was very controversial at the time. Canada now has a flag which the entire world recognises as a symbol of Canada. We can do the same.