January 30, 2014
Flag flap hides bigger issues
Mana leader Hone Harawira says John Key’s call for a national conversation about a new flag is an attempt to divert attention from the damage his government’s policies are doing to ordinary New Zealanders.
The Prime Minister has mooted a referendum on the issue alongside this year’s election, with his own preference being for a silver fern on a black background.
Mr Harawira, whose advocacy helped win acceptance of the Tino Rangatiratanga flag as the officially-sanctioned Maori flag, says the country has more important things to discuss.
"I have a personal favourite in terms of the flag but I don't think that's the major issue right now. I think we have families in desperate straits, struggling to get into houses. I suspect absolutely that John Key's doing his best to take people's minds off it by throwing up the odd red herring of the flag," he says.
Meanwhile, Christchurch City Council has voted against flying the Maori flag for Waitangi Day.
It considered advices that there was division with its Maori communities as to whether the red, white and black Tino Rangatiratanga flag or the United Tribes flag was the right one to fly.
Indigenous rights lobby group Te Ata Tino Toa says the empty flagpoles will make a powerful statement that race relations in Christchurch has some way to go.
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