The Great Flag Debate is about to finally come to a head. An initial referendum later this year will determine the most favoured design from a shortlist prepared by a panel of select worthies. A second referendum next year will then choose between this design and the existing official flag. So, the whole $25.7 million process might still achieve nothing more than retention of the existing flag.
The RSA make a good point when stating that surely any initial referendum (which could be incorporated into the next parliamentary election at virtually nil expense) should establish if there is in fact public preference for scuttling the present flag in the first place. If not, then there's no need for the rest of the carry-on, and so save $25.7 million.
Once upon a day as a steaming young radical, I was naturally all for losing outdated symbols of British imperial past, etc etc. But truth be known, I've pretty much come full circle, and I'm happy for the status quo to continue. Like it or not, the Brit connection is very much part of our history - but apart from that, the union jack is a great graphic symbol purely in visual terms.
As for the Southern Cross, it's a star cluster attendant to every Southern Hemisphere country, but over the years it, too, has acquired a certain resonance. And good old stars are graphically strong also. The silver fern is a busy little symbol that only seems to work on black, and who wants a black flag? So, all in all, I'm of the view that national flags almost design themselves by a curious distillation process. Granted, nations do occasionally come up with radical departures from previous pennants. The Canada example is often trotted out as an exemplar. But in fact the Canada experience was tortuous and somewhat fortuitous. Before its new flag was adopted in 1965, debate had raged for many decades. A committee of politicians was finally appointed to make a decision, which ditched the thousands of designs submitted by the Canadian public in favour of one by a military historian, who just happened to be mates with a committee member who slipped it in at the last minute. Luckily, the public took to it, but it could just as easily have ended up a dog.
But here's something. Of the $25.7 million budget, roughly $500,000 is allocated to recompense the panel members charged with the arduous initial task of paring the public design submissions down to a shortlist - $640 per day for members, with the chair on $850, for however long it takes! However, let's not forget that selecting a new flag is in effect choosing a new national logo - and this new logo business is a serious one indeed. I seem to recall the ad agency responsible for the Te Papa logo putting in a half-million-or-so invoice for the thumbprint of the agency's tea lady that comprised the final product.
