This bloody flag debate has been running for so long now that my exasperation levels have damn near risen to the point of cursing out loud – those who know me know that it takes a fair bit to have me cursing aloud.

Alright, that’s patently untrue, I cuss all the time, but the point remains the same: the sensibility, the magnitude and indeed, the reasoning behind this debate of whether to dip into the nation’s budget to replace the existing flag with something which, let’s be fair, will probably end up being garish, gaudy or just plain ostentatious, or retaining the proud old red, white, and blue stalwart with its Southern Cross and its Union Jack to watch over us, is more akin to a toddler picking his nose, slowly withdrawing his hand, peering momentarily at the fruits of his excavation, before ducking the finger between his parted lips…

Prime Minister John Key recently admitted that New Zealand isn’t actually as financially solvent as it should be therefore tax relief is still a way off. Even more recently he admitted that our several thousand impoverished children will also have to continue their financial struggle for just a little longer.

…It’s not something you ever want to see at the centre of a debate, if it goes on too long you realise somebody has to step in and put an end to it and yet, from the perspective of the decision-maker you can understand that it really is an easy way for him to pass the time.

It seems ludicrous that, at a time when there are umpteen other good and productive channels down which to pour Government funding, the prospect of producing a new national flag – also the countless polls, surveys, and referendums that go with it – takes priority.

It rather annoys me that I am so vehemently against this movement because ordinarily, I do like to support John Key and his National party in most every decision they make; but ultimately, I like our current flag. It represents New Zealand. It represents us as a people. It represents our proximity to the Southern Cross, and our affiliation with the Commonwealth which, for the record, I do not consider a bad thing.

Shit man, I like our flag so much I wrote an article about it when this issue was first raised – all the way back in March of 2014 – which provides an example of just how much time, hence money, has been wasted on this ridiculous topic.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Whey Star Mini

Photography by Fleg B Rare