Flag of New Zealand
The Union Jack in the top corner of a blue flag, and the Southern Cross as four red five-pointed stars with white borders. The stars’ red and white were chosen in 1869 to correspond with the colours of the Union Jack, the Library of Congress’s account of the flag says.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The flag was officially adopted through the New Zealand Ensign Act in 1902. Its origins date from 1865, when Britain’s Colonial Naval Defence Act told colonial vessels to fly the Blue Ensign, a royal blue flag with the Union Jack in the canton, with the colony’s seal or badge on it; in 1869 the Governor of New Zealand directed that the Southern Cross be added. The flag is now set by the Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981, which Parliament could amend by a simple majority. In a referendum in March 2016 voters kept it, with 56.6% of the vote, against Kyle Lockwood’s Silver Fern (Black, White and Blue) design.
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New Zealand flag vs Australia
New Zealand’s stars are red with white borders, have five points, and there are four of them. Australia’s flag has white stars: the five of the Southern Cross, one of them small, and a large seven-pointed star under the Union Jack. The similarity has caused confusion abroad, the Library of Congress noted in 2016. In September 2026 two New Zealand flags were flown by mistake at Parliament House in Canberra, in a display marking 125 years of the Australian flag, 1News reported.
Who had the design first
New Zealand’s flag was made official in 1902. Australia’s was first flown in 1901 but adopted in law only by its Flags Act in 1954. In 2018 Winston Peters, then Deputy Prime Minister, said Australia had copied New Zealand’s flag and should change its own.
The 2015 and 2016 referendums
The New Zealand Flags Referendum Act 2015 made both referendums binding. A Flag Consideration Panel received 10,292 designs; voters ranked five alternatives in a postal ballot in November and December 2015, and the Silver Fern (Black, White and Blue) won with 50.58% after preferences. In the run-off between March 3 and 24, 2016, with a turnout of 67.3%, 56.6% voted to keep the current flag.
Read next
- Next in Flags of OceaniaFlag of AustraliaThe Union Jack in the top corner, a large seven-pointed Commonwealth Star below it and the five white stars of the Southern Cross on a blue flag. The Flags Act 1953 says the large star represents the six states and the territories; its seventh point was added in 1908 for Papua and future territories, the Museum of Australian Democracy says.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of BurundiA white diagonal cross divides the flag into red triangles at top and bottom and green ones at the sides, with a white disc in the centre holding three red six-pointed stars. The Presidency of Burundi says the red recalls the sacrifices made to defend the nation and win independence, the green hope and prosperity, the white peace and unity, and that the three stars traditionally stand for the national motto, “Unity, Work, Progress”.
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with crosses, squares and rectangles or stars.
Sources
- FALQs: New Zealand’s Flag Referendums, Kelly Buchanan, “FALQs: New Zealand’s Flag Referendums”, In Custodia Legis, 30 March 2016, Law Library of Congress, Questions 1–5
- Aussie Parliament accidentally raises two NZ flags when commemorating its own, 1News, 4 September 2026, 1News (TVNZ), Article text
- Flags Act 1953, Flags Act 1953 (No. 1, 1954), compilation C2008C00376, ss. 3, 4 and 8 and Schedule 1, Federal Register of Legislation (Australian Government), Schedule 1, clause 1A
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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