Editorial: Flag fails to deliver on promise

The Southern Horizon topped an Aussie university poll.

So the Aussies want to change their flag too?

Taking the lead from us, they have come up with several designs.

The one pictured has topped a university poll - it is the Southern Horizon.

Close behind it was the Reconciliation flag, which incorporated a boomerang.

Interesting that one of the most popular Aussie designs incorporates elements of their indigenous culture, something that is graphically absent from the flag that New Zealanders will choose in our March referendum. Will we vote in the proposed Silver Fern flag or retain the status quo?

The Silver Fern flag appears culturally non-denominational. Its accompanying blurb states that "the multiple points of the fern leaf represent Aotearoa's peaceful, multicultural society, a single fern spreading upwards representing one people growing onward into the future.

"The bright blue represents our clear skies and the Pacific Ocean, and the Southern Cross guided early settlers to our islands and represents our location in the South Pacific."

Beautiful words, but many will be turned off by the detailed explanation required to fully understand the flag's meaning. No one ever had to read about Monet or Picasso to derive joy from their artwork.

It's a flag - when you look at it, it should engender some form of nationalism or patriotic pride.

And here's the thing, marketing waffle aside, I think it does and we will vote it in.

But I think it's a shame that there is no distinctive Maori design element in it.

If we were truly a "peaceful, multicultural society ... one people growing onward into the future" then the flag would show it.

It doesn't, and perhaps one day there will be another flag referendum instigated by the lament that our flag does not reflect our indigenous people.