Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Harawira rejects 'Hone's flag' tag

Updated at 10:17 pm on 16 December 2009

Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira says the acceptance of a national Maori flag should be a cause for celebration, not mean-spirited opposition.

Critics, including Northland Labour MP Shane Jones, say the tino rangatiratanga flag is a political banner for the Maori Party, and are calling it "Hone's flag".

It is to be flown at some official sites on Waitangi Day.

Mr Harawira says Mr Jones's own children have been wearing the flag for the past 10 years, and the criticism is petty.

He says the tino rangatiratanga emblem was preferred by 80% of Maori who voted for a flag and is clearly the people's choice.

Mr Harawira says he would like to see the flag flying alongside the New Zealand flag at the Treaty Grounds.

Maori activists have tried repeatedly to hoist it on to the navy flagstaff there.

Mr Harawira says if it could fly there as of right, that would take the sting out of the annual demonstrations.

The Green Party is backing the tino rangatiratanga flag.

Co-leader Metiria Turei says it's wrong to dismiss the symbol Maori activists have rallied around since the 1990s as being only a protest flag or a Maori Party flag.

She says there's room for multiple flags.

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