New Zealand has accused Australia of plagiarism flag
Moscow. July 26. INTERFAX.RU — Acting Prime Minister of New Zealand Winston Peters has called on Australia to change the flag to avoid confusion arising abroad because of the similarity of the flags of the two countries, writes The Guardian.
“It is obvious that people around the world are confused. I have been to places like Turkey, where people confuse our country because of these flags. It’s not a good thing” — gives the Western media the words of Peters.
“We came up with the flag, and they (the Australians — if) borrowed it, and if we want to deal with the issue, they should change their flag”, — he explained.
Stop copying New Zealand’s flag, Winston Peters tells Australia https://t.co/IJ1yQ2gVvn
— The Guardian (@guardian) July 25, 2018
Left Australian flag, to the right of New Zealand.
However, the new Zealand leader of the opposition Simon bridges responded by accusing Peters of populism and called it “Donald trump for the poor.”
Bridges explained that the new Zealanders with whom he spoke were concerned about such topics as the economy and health care.
They never broached with me the subject change the Australian flag. It’s weird even by the standards of Peters.Simon Bridgeclear new Zealand opposition
In modern New Zealand flag depicts four red five-pointed star, indicating the geographical position of New Zealand and representing the brightest stars of the constellation of the southern cross, and “Union Jack” national flag of great Britain — in the upper left corner.
In turn on the Australian flag shows six white stars: five stars in the constellation of the southern cross in the right side and one large star in the center on the left.
Australia has adopted the current flag in 1901, shortly after the formation of the Federation of the colonies — the Commonwealth of Australia. The king Edward VII of great Britain signed the law on the flag of New Zealand — then a British colony — on March 4, 1902, although the flag was used even before New Zealand became a colony in 1841.