“Run It Up The Flagpole…”
Over the last few weeks The New Zealand Herald has published several articles relating to the flag process. One included a poll with a list of 15 flags to choose from.
Only 1800 people responded to the poll with The Herald deciding the results suggested ”Traditional flag designs prove to be most popular”. Nearly all of the options are “traditional” with 10 of the 15 designs including the Southern Cross, 7 of the 10 including either a fern or koru, and 2 of the 10 including a kiwi. All of these are established and recognisable symbols of New Zealand.
Unfortunately nothing unique was presented as part of the poll. This is a worrying sign that interesting alternatives are not getting exposure alongside the obvious submissions.
The Results:
- Heritage Minimalist 4.4%
- New New Zealand Flag 3.97%
- Long White Cloud 6.06%
- Three Islands. One Land 1.13%
- Silver Fern Flag Kyle Lockwood’s original 23.06%
- Kiwi: Air Force 1.4%
- Design 1 0.38%
- Matariki Long White Cloud 3.81%
- Manawa 9.12%
- Silver Fern 10.57%
- Silver Fern with Southern Cross 25.15%
- United New Zealand 6.49%
- Kiwi, Aotearoa, Oceans East & West 0.54%
- Contemporary 0.65%
- Long White Cloud Southern Cross 3.33%
The Herald also discusses the lack of engagement and low turnout at roadshows around the country. Countering that, the article “New flag debate firing up online” highlights some of the visiter numbers from the flag sites:
There had been almost 350,000 visits to the flag.govt.nz website where the designs are on show and 123,000 to the standfor.co.nz website. More than 2000 people had visited information stands. There had also been more than 202,000 visits to the Facebook page in the last week.
UPDATE 1: I suggested on Twitter that more of the analytics be made available and have submitted a request to the flag.govt.nz site team to see what information can be published.
UPDATE 2: The flag.govt.nz site team politely declined my request for information. They have valid security / privacy concerns about sharing particular details so will publish what data they can soon. I look forward to seeing what they are able to share.