New Zealand‘s Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has demanded that Australia change its flag, accusing the neighbouring country of copying his country’s own.
The resemblance between the two countries’ flags is undeniable: both feature a Union Jack on the left and stars representing the southern cross constellation on the right, set against a dark blue background.
New Zealand adopted its current flag in 1902, according to the country’s Ministry for Culture and Heritage, while Australia’s dates back only as far as 1953, according to its government.
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Peters, who is New Zealand’s acting prime minister, seized upon this when asked by Television New Zealand why he opposed former prime minister John Key’s referendums for New Zealand to change its flag.
“Here we had a flag that we’ve had for a long time — copied by Australia, and they should actually change their flag and honour the fact that we got there first with this design — being decided by a prime minister and his legacy,” Peters said.
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This isn’t the first time Peters has suggested that Australia change its national flag; he also floated the idea in a 2016 column for The Dominion Post in which he explained why he opposed changing New Zealand’s.
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“One argument used against our flag is that it is too like Australia’s, which borrowed our design in the first place,” he wrote. “However, since Australian political leaders have recently signed to have their own head of state it is Australia that will have to change its flag, and soon. That will rightly restore our flag to being unique as it was in the beginning.”
Peters received his wish for New Zealand to keep its flag: the country’s flag referendums in 2015 and 2016 resulted in the retention of its existing flag.
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