Photograph by Michael Button
New Zealand prime minister John Key has announced plans for a referendum on whether to change the country’s national flag.
Key has said that he wants to hold a referendum within three years to let the nation decide whether they want to drop the current New Zealand flag which shows the Southern Cross star constellation in red on a blue background, with the Union Flag in the top left corner.
The prime minister has proposed the country moves away from the inclusion of the Union Flag, and instead move to a white fern on a black background already by many of New Zealand’s national sports teams. However critics have said that such a flag would associate the country’s banner too much with sport, and complained that it looks too similar to the traditional pirate flag of a skull and cross-bones on a black background, according to ITV News.
