Flag campaign about to fly says Pannett

"The campaign to change the flag is well on track with 400 volunteers preparing to collect signatures around the country, " said campaign manager, Iona Pannett.

The http://www.NZFlag.com Trust aims to gather around 350,000 signatures to enable a referendum to be held in conjunction with the 2005 election. The question will read "Should the design of the New Zealand flag be changed?".

"The www.NZFlag.com team has been inundated with calls from supporters wanting to help us achieve our goal of collecting 350,000 signatures by May," said Ms Pannett.

"The more people we have to collect signatures, the better. We hope to have around 1000 New Zealanders on the streets collecting signatures for a referendum to change the design of flag this year."

Ms Pannett said New Zealanders needed a flag they could fly with pride, that didn't carry the Union Jack and wasn't mistaken for Australia's.

"We need a flag we can identify with, are proud of and which better represents us as New Zealanders," she said.

Ms Pannett expected the petitions would be available for the public to sign early this year.

Anyone who can help with the campaign to change the flag should email iona@actrix.co.nz or call Iona at 04 384 3382 or 021 251 6050.

As well as thousands of Kiwis who have signed up for change on the www.NZflag.com website, the campaign to change the flag has the support of over seventy prominent New Zealanders including Olympic gold medallist, Barbara Kendall; world champion squash player Dame Susan Devoy; musician Neil Finn; businessman Stephen Tindall, and Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop.

The full list of campaign endorsers spans a range of disciplines including sports, the arts, education, religion and business.

Endorsers' names, photographs and the reasons why they believe the flag should be changed appear on the www.nzflag.com website .www.nzflag.com/endorsements.

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