Somehow, I’m okay with the mess this referendum has been. It’s been expensive and painful and exhausting. And thankfully, almost over; with most polls suggesting that our flag won’t change after all.

I’m okay with that because hopefully the government will learn from its mistakes — a national symbol is too important to crowdsource; transparency at every level of the process is fundamental (for those not in NZ, the Red Peak flag was not one of the original finalist designs put forward but was added after an online petition and public outcry forced the Prime Minister’s hand, effectively making the entire process redundant); and more importantly, the need for a new flag needs to stem from more than vanity.

As a nation, we first need to decide who we are as a nation. New studies suggest that New Zealand is fast becoming a super–diverse nation, yet all of the proposed flag designs predominantly favour the country’s rich Maori heritage and traditions. So much so, that all signs of the country’s colonial history (and association to the Commonwealth) are removed. I’m not saying that focusing on our past is a bad thing, but the argument for a new flag falls apart when it destroys another equally important part of New Zealand’s history in favour of another (New Zealand would be Aotearoa after all, were it not for colonial settlers). At the same time, none of these flags represent the future, at least not in the same way that the current South African flag did when it was first introduced.

This really is just a long–winded way to say that we should learn from this process and do it again (perhaps not on the 100–year anniversary of Gallipoli), and do it properly (even if it is going to cost us another $26 million). Just because we’ve reached this point, it doesn’t mean we should make a rash decision for change just because we can. I’m not convinced that any of the alternatives will provide us with a better national identity, because I’m not sure we quite know what that is supposed to be yet.