New Zealand’s acting prime minister has suggested that Australia should change its flag to include a big kangaroo.
Over the past week, Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters has repeatedly claimed that Australia should change the flag they’ve been using for more than six decades.
Mr Peters decided to offer his creative input on Saturday, suggesting that the flag should showcase the nation’s famous fauna.
‘I think we’ve even already got the solution for them, if you like: Probably a big kangaroo, like the maple leaf in Canada,’ he told Newshub Nation.
Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters has suggested that Australia should change its flag to include a big kangaroo (stock image)
Over the past week, Peters (pictured) has repeatedly slammed Australia for ‘copying’ their national flag
Mr Peters claimed the New Zealand flag (right) was ‘copied by Australia’ (left) and that they should ‘change their flag’ because they had it ‘first’
Mr Peters, who is filling in for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern while she is on maternity leave, was a fierce opponent of changing New Zealand’s flag during their 2016 referendum.
‘In 1901, we adopt our flag. In 1954, they adopt a flag that is almost identical to ours. The facts speak for themselves,’ Mr Peters said on Saturday.
‘We had a flag that we’ve had for a long time, copied by Australia, and they should actually change their flag and honour the fact that we got there first with this design, being decided by a Prime Minister and his legacy,’ Mr Peters previously told TVNZ.
The call to change the flag has been widely debated for years as the two are often confused due to their similarity and geographical proximity.
Mr Peters said that it’s very confusing at the Olympic Games or the Commonwealth Games as the flags similarities make it hard to determine which nation won which medal.
The repeated comments come after Mr Peters, who is also the country’s Foreign Minister, previously slammed Australia for deporting New Zealand nationals without trial.
‘When you’re in a foreign country you’re expected to obey their laws,’ he said.
‘But someone should be tried before they’re evicted from a country.’
More than one thousand New Zealanders have had their visas cancelled in Australia since stricter deportation laws were introduced four years ago.
Some have spent the majority of their lives in Australia with little connection to their country of birth.
In the same period, the Tasman neighbour has sent back only nine Australian citizens.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said New Zealand needed to keep in mind the country was a buffer between themselves and boats.
‘(New Zealand) don’t contribute really anything to the defence effort,’ Mr Dutton said last week.
‘There’s a lot that we do for New Zealand.’
Mr Peters previously slammed Australia for deporting New Zealanders without trial however Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) said they did ‘a lot’ for the neighbouring nation