A new flag for New Zealand

Helen Regan has a Time article about a new flag for New Zealand:

New Zealand has unveiled the final four designs (photo, top) for a new national flag. The country is in the process of choosing an alternative to replace their current flag (photo, bottom), which is controversial due to its inclusion of the UK’s Union Jack and thus association with colonial repression, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Three of the new designs show the silver fern— a plant indigenous to New Zealand that has become an important symbol of the country, its people, culture, and sport. The fourth flag depicts the koru, a spiral symbol used in Maori art that represents an unfurling silver fern.
A Flag Consideration Panel chose the final shortlist from more than ten thousand submissions, which was whittled down to a list of forty entries in August of 2015.
Members of the public will be able to vote on their preferred design in November of 2015. The winner of that vote will be pitted against the incumbent flag in a second referendum that will take place in March of 2016.
Prime Minister John Key, who called for the two-stage referendum and All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, favor the silver fern design. But a recent poll by the New Zealand Herald found over fifty percent of voters didn’t support changing the flag.
“So far the debate hasn’t even stirred enough interest to fill up a county hall,” said Tracy Watkins, political editor for Fairfax Media New Zealand.
On Twitter, Kiwis responded to the final four with a combination of ambivalence and disdain.

Rico says the comments were not kind...