The Returned Services Association says it is preparing a strategy to fight to keep the current New Zealand flag. The association has criticised the cost of the exercise and questioned the need to hold two referenda. It has also suggested the appointment of a flag change committee so close to the Anzac centenary was ill considered.
As far as I can see, the RSA is the only organisation so far to make an issue of the way the two referenda are being held, a strategy that is so obviously a fraud that it drags John Key and the rest of the National Party down into the gutter of politics. There are not many places lower than that.
It is a terrible reflection upon the National Party in that they have apparently sunk so low collectively that not one of them is prepared to speak out on this immoral deceit. That Key is already under pressure for deception should not be seen as a reason to quell criticism from within National on other examples of deceit.
This is an issue that many NZers feel very strongly about. Nats with a conscience should speak out.
National RSA president BJ Clark said they were working on a plan to fight to keep the current flag, and would unveil it after ANZAC day. He said New Zealand forces had served and sacrificed under the flag, which was as relevant today as it was when troops landed in Gallipoli.
He also said it was unacceptable that the new committee would come just before the ANZAC centenary, and that the $26 million cost of the review project was excessive.
“I’m not sure why we should got through a process of picking a number of flags first then putting it up against the existing flag, only to find there’s an overwhelming majority of people who don’t want change.”
Mr Clark is dead right, and it is a clear indicator of the dishonesty of our would be Progressive ruling class that no one in the media, the National Party, or any other party, or the Wellington beltway in its entirety, is prepared to speak out on what is nothing but a cheap cynical ploy to advance the flag change argument.
The first referendum is clearly designed to be part of the softening up process for the country to, by the time of the second referendum, eventually accept John Key’s new flag.
Even when the charter for the process states clearly there shall be no presumption of change.
This is a massive fraud and I shall never forgive the National Party for allowing John Key to perpetrate such a shallow cynical artifice. Everyone of them is condemned as either a coward too afraid to speak out against Key’s deceit, or a part of the fraud. End of story.
(as for NZ’s mainstream media, who are yet to comment at all on this aspect of the referenda, we already know what they are..)
TrueblueNZ 
13 responses to “RSA sees through John Key’s deceitful artifice on flag change referenda”
Can anyone explain the logic, of deciding what the new flag should look like, before you decide if you want to change the flag in the first place.
Even then it needs to be more than a simple majority, the National flag is much more important than that.
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Yes, good point. Should be at least a 2/3rds break for a new flag before it is accepted as a win for Key.
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I would have said 70% of all eligible voters. Not just 51% of the 30% who bothered to vote.
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70% of all nett taxpayers — oh wait a minute, there’s zero support among nett taxpayers for any flag change.
Time Key remembers who pays all the bills in NZ for the other 90%
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One of the main arguments put forward by the agents of change is that it looks too much like the Aussies flag, which is rubbish for anyone who takes notice of things around them. If that’s their problem, let them petition the Aussies to change theirs – our flag is more representative of the south pacific region and the Southern Cross than the Australians is. Let them put an emu and a kangaroo or koala on theirs – same as their coat of arms – or a wombat, or a dingo, or a gum leaf or whatever………
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Yep ,the similarity bullshit. Doesn’t bother the Eyeties or Paddies and Ivory Coast is almost identical to them but in reverse, the Belgians or Krauts while Andorra ,Romania and Chad are identical! Once again Saatchi and Saatchi hand in glove with Notional doing a renewing the rebranding attempt .They tried it before under Shipley.
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This protest from the RSA also puts the stuff about fighting under the Silver Fern to rest as well.
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I think you will find that the flag the ANZAC troops fought under at Gallipoli was John Bull’s Waistcoat.
AFAIK, the first time the NZ flag was flown in a war situation was 1939, quite sometime after Gallipoli,
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Interesting claim. Had a look through a few hundred old photos on the net but couldn’t find a photo of any flag except the Turkish flag. Did find some drawings of the Australian and NZ flags from that era but nothing to help really.
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My maternal grandfather, Donald Vincent Piper ( I am named after him – Donald Vincent Beckett) fought on Galipoli as well as his brother in law, Eustace Charles Nicholson. I know bloody well that they fought under the NZ flag that we have now. I know that because I spoke at length with them when i was a young man in my teens. They were proud of the flag they fought under, and were fortunate enough to survive that, plus the next 3 years in the trenches in France.
My grandfather and Uncle Nick went in as privates – Pop Piper came home as a Leiutenant, and Uncle Eustie as a Sergeant major. They were proud of our flag, and I respect and preserve their memory.
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Yes, I think you and the head of the RSA might have the most idea about what’s right here Don.
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Has Key any stomach for dumping the treaty. I believe a good case could be made for that at least.
Worth discussing, get the ball rolling.
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Key won’t dump the Treaty for two reasons. 1) he doesn’t care to, and 2) he needs the Maori party. Especially if Winston wins in Northland.
Of course he could have gone with the Conservatives, encouraged a few more to vote for them and he would have been over the line with a much stronger coalition.
But because he’s a Progressive (self described) he preferred the racists, ex Labour Peter Dunne and ACT who only brought one seat. Really bad thinking.
If Winston wins (as is likely) the only power Key will have is that granted to him by Dunne, ACT and the Maoris. They will have him over a barrel.
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