NZ First seeks to legislate ‘New Zealand’ as country’s official name

[F5 Dave]

Funny I was just thinking about this yesterday.

And when you think of it, it’s kinda a dumb name.

I mean let’s be a bit original with the names huh? Some poxy explorer or Bureaucrat map maker gave us a name of a bit of Holland and added New to the front.
New England, New Plymouth, New Mexico. I mean, geez these are all dumb names.

Why couldn’t we get an original name like Australia did?
Oh wait. That’s just Austria with an ‘al’ added.


When we get past the sentimental –“oh I’ve always known it as New Zealand and my Grandfather fought in a war (well actually someone else’s war) to defend (again another country) that name”. Where does that leave you?

How about an original flag? No, we get the same one as Auss (or they did) with slight changes to the stars, but - Let’s put someone else’s flag in the corner so everyone knows that we’re their Bitches. Like slaves branded with their owner’s names.
Countries do change name. They get on with their lives, but how long do we leave this legacy of some colonial (or wannabe colonial in the case of the Dutch) decision mark us forever.

Ok there would be a lot of stationary to change but we’d get there as every company that rebrands eventually does.

Aotearoa? Well I’m not mad on it and there are difficulties historically to whether it means the whole country or just an island.
I’m kinda warming to it by comparison though.

Zealandia would be a compromise. Meh.

[jim.cox]

As a country we have far more pressing things to attend to than the name on the passport

NZ first is proving to be a complete and utter waste of space (no surprise there)

By any measure, they're failing on the job

Yes they need distractions like this to cover up the failure of everything they touch, but really they should pull their collective heads in and get on with the job for which they were elected

[pritch]

Funny I was just thinking about this yesterday.

And when you think of it, it’s kinda a dumb name.

I mean let’s be a bit original with the names huh? Some poxy explorer or Bureaucrat map maker gave us a name of a bit of Holland and added New to the front.
New England, New Plymouth, New Mexico. I mean, geez these are all dumb names.

Why couldn’t we get an original name like Australia did?
Oh wait. That’s just Austria with an ‘al’ added.


When we get past the sentimental –“oh I’ve always known it as New Zealand and my Grandfather fought in a war (well actually someone else’s war) to defend (again another country) that name”. Where does that leave you?

How about an original flag? No, we get the same one as Auss (or they did) with slight changes to the stars, but - Let’s put someone else’s flag in the corner so everyone knows that we’re their Bitches. Like slaves branded with their owner’s names.
Countries do change name. They get on with their lives, but how long do we leave this legacy of some colonial (or wannabe colonial in the case of the Dutch) decision mark us forever.

Ok there would be a lot of stationary to change but we’d get there as every company that rebrands eventually does.

Aotearoa? Well I’m not mad on it and there are difficulties historically to whether it means the whole country or just an island.
I’m kinda warming to it by comparison though.

Zealandia would be a compromise. Meh.

Elegantly expressed. My problem is that relatively few people in the world know where New Zealand is now. To change the name would mean even less people know where we are.

Poetic we aint. Maori names aren't much better. Was driving through Marton one day and saw a street sign 'Tutaenui street'. That caused a double take, iterally translated that means big turd.

Some years back at a wine tasting I was offered a Hawke's Bay wine from the Tutaekuri vineyard. The vineyard was presumably near the Tutaekuri river. Tutaekuri means dog shit. Not the most appetising of names. Haven't seen that wine since, I'm guessing they either changed the name or went broke. Even so why would anybody name a river that? I did explain to a lady once that I thought dog shit was of greater cultural significance to Maori because they had bare feet.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Hateful, and hate-filled. Fuckers.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Zealandia would be a compromise. Meh.

Pangaea (sp?) - fuck with a bunch of geologists (or whoever studies plate tectonics and so forth).

[sugilite]

How about an original flag? No, we get the same one as Auss (or they did) with slight changes to the stars, but - Let’s put someone else’s flag in the corner so everyone knows that we’re their Bitches. Like slaves branded with their owner’s names.
Countries do change name. They get on with their lives, but how long do we leave this legacy of some colonial (or wannabe colonial in the case of the Dutch) decision mark us forever.



Absolutely bang on! We do need an original name. At first I thought "Kawasakiland" had a rice ring to it, but nah, it does sound a bit Japanesish, so I thought Aprillialand, it really rolls off the tongue, but may get into a copy write issue with Italy.

What we need is a great inspiration that just screams our creativeness, culture and number 8 mentality to the World!

So with out further ado, I hereby announce a truly awesome, unique and GREAT name with associated flag for everyones consideration.

Ladies and Gentlemen - I give you "Great Britten"!!!!!

Our new proposed National flag!!!

https://andys-kawasaki-zxr-zx7r-tribute-site.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/great-britten.jpg

Now if course the Aussies will want in on our new found coolness, so we could look at them joining us as a junior member 3rd island or somthing. I guess a name for our combined region could be equally original, like "United Kingdom", or somthin like that. :yes:

[Katman]

Hateful, and hate-filled. Fuckers.

Oh the fucking irony.

[F5 Dave]

Absolutely bang on! We do need an original name. At first I thought "Kawasakiland" had a rice ring to it, but nah, it does sound a bit Japanesish, so I thought Aprillialand, it really rolls off the tongue, but may get into a copy write issue with Italy.

What we need is a great inspiration that just screams our creativeness, culture and number 8 mentality to the World!

So with out further ado, I hereby announce a truly awesome, unique and GREAT name with associated flag for everyones consideration.

Ladies and Gentlemen - I give you "Great Britten"!!!!!

Our new proposed National flag!!!

https://andys-kawasaki-zxr-zx7r-tribute-site.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/great-britten.jpg

Now if course the Aussies will want in on our new found coolness, so we could look at them joining us as a junior member 3rd island or somthing. I guess a name for our combined region could be equally original, like "United Kingdom", or somthin like that. :yes:
Oh fuck oh fuck
I laughed and laughed.
Thank you.
Still laughing as I type.

and how did you know that I was thinking of laser eyed kiwi when I wrote that? Actually the night before thinking about the flag.

[nerrrd]

My only observation would be, like it or not, place names are by definition historic, however good or bad they end up being. It's not like naming your kid, you don't get to pick. Sure they can be changed, but why bother?

All politicians do is waste time nowadays, it's all they can do once they've looked under the bonnet and realise no taxpayer will ever pay what it would really cost to fix the engine.

Aotearoa is a lot of vowels for the rest of the world to deal with, none of them will ever be able to pronounce it properly, just like I couldn't.

Why are we even talking about this again?

[Katman]

I don't give a fuck if the name's changed due to a national concensus.

I won't accept it being changed by stealth though - as is being attempted at the moment.

[nerrrd]

And call me shallow but I want a flag that looks good. The existing one looks better than any alternative I've seen so far.

I'd vote for the tino rangitiratanga flag if that was an option, graphically it's a stunner.

The only fern design I've ever seen that actually works on a flag is the All Blacks logo, but that one's taken too.

Again not something I'll be losing much sleep over.

[SaferRides]

If you've ever arrived here by boat (I have), Aotearoa is very appropriate.

NZ First and Act are simply trying to Trump each other, and I suspect it's going to get worse.

Disclaimer: Posted after a few Friday night drinks.

Sent from my SM-S938B using Tapatalk

[R650R]

Haven’t followed this but think it’s about keeping things simple.

We are a relatively unknown nation often mistaken for part of Australia. Winston’s just trying to save us from the eventual
Anguish we’d go through if someone try to change it like the flag debate debacle was.

Aside from dodging child support payments or trying to hide a govt departments previous failings rebrands are a costly exercise that produce little result without other components.

Telecom to Spark—- still rubbish service.

Vodaphone to voda to ONE same same.

LTSA TO …..

Housing NZ to ….,,

MOT to traffic safety service to highway patrol to police….

[F5 Dave]

And call me shallow but I want a flag that looks good. The existing one looks better than any alternative I've seen so far.

I'd vote for the tino rangitiratanga flag if that was an option, graphically it's a stunner.

The only fern design I've ever seen that actually works on a flag is the All Blacks logo, but that one's taken too.

Again not something I'll be losing much sleep over.

I'd be OK with our flag if we remove the Bitch sticker in the upper left and Australia hurries up to become a Republic like they flirt with so often, then they change theirs (perhaps just a convict arrow on a simple background).
Then the flag could be actually ours.

Put a fern where the union jackoff was if you must.

[TheDemonLord]

Absolutely bang on! We do need an original name. At first I thought "Kawasakiland" had a rice ring to it, but nah, it does sound a bit Japanesish, so I thought Aprillialand, it really rolls off the tongue, but may get into a copy write issue with Italy.

What we need is a great inspiration that just screams our creativeness, culture and number 8 mentality to the World!

So with out further ado, I hereby announce a truly awesome, unique and GREAT name with associated flag for everyones consideration.

Ladies and Gentlemen - I give you "Great Britten"!!!!!

Our new proposed National flag!!!

https://andys-kawasaki-zxr-zx7r-tribute-site.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/great-britten.jpg

Now if course the Aussies will want in on our new found coolness, so we could look at them joining us as a junior member 3rd island or somthing. I guess a name for our combined region could be equally original, like "United Kingdom", or somthin like that. :yes:

Goddamn.

This is making a compelling argument.

[sugilite]

Oh fuck oh fuck
I laughed and laughed.
Thank you.
Still laughing as I type.

and how did you know that I was thinking of laser eyed kiwi when I wrote that? Actually the night before thinking about the flag.
Good to hear you got a laugh out of it. And Ii impossible not to think of the sheer awesomeness of a laser eyed kiwi when discussing flag replacements :Punk:


And call me shallow but I want a flag that looks good. The existing one looks better than any alternative I've seen so far.

I'd vote for the tino rangitiratanga flag if that was an option, graphically it's a stunner.

The only fern design I've ever seen that actually works on a flag is the All Blacks logo, but that one's taken too.

Again not something I'll be losing much sleep over.
I quite liked this one when Keys flag initiative was alive.
https://c.files.bbci.co.uk/14DCF/production/_87155458_gettyimages-492306228.jpg



Goddamn.

This is making a compelling argument.

Haha, glad you got a laugh.


My serious opinion is I like New Zealand and do not mind Aotearoa being used either. I'm fine with both being used, many countries do this. I cannot think of any replacement names myself.
For me it is just the usual minor parties in a coalition desperate to distinguish themselves. And they have seen how effective culture wars are in the US. Yes, I'm looking at you NZ First and Act.

[F5 Dave]

The Brits were always masters of giving countries names they didn't call themselves.

We beat you in a skirmish or colonised you.
You can be Germany, you can be China, you can be India.

No complaints? Good.

[nerrrd]

Yeah the fern is a difficult symbol to massage into a simple and clean graphic that looks good on a flag. The referendum demonstrated that in no uncertain terms for me, but that's just my opinion, and someone may well crack it in future.

I'd be happy to just take off the union jack and leave the rest as is. Either way just stick with the one symbol, just stars or just a fern, don't overload it.

[jellywrestler]

or just a fern, don't overload it.
every country pretty much has a fern, it's a shit symbol for individuality

[pritch]

every country pretty much has a fern, it's a shit symbol for individuality

Exactly. The silver fern plant is special but nobody else even knows what it is. Foreign people seeing a silver fern badge think it's a feather.