NZ Flag Referendum Update
March 2016
Quantitative Survey
Commentary
>In UMR’s latest flag survey undertaken in last week of February 59% want to keep the current flag and 32% to change.
9% were unsure. That possibly represents a very modest gain for the change campaign as most previous polls have shown a
2:1 margin for retention of the current flag.
>The support for the current flag amongst those who declare they are certain to vote is higher at 62% to 32%.
>National voters are the most likely to vote for change splitting 45% each way. Only 19% of Labour voters support
changing the flag with 73% for retention.
>The critical audience as voting begins are the almost 20% of New Zealanders, identified in UMR's January flag survey
who are voting to retain the current flag but agree with the statement "in principle I would like to change the flag but
I just do not like the alternative“.
>Those voting for a new flag to "remove the symbolic colonial yoke" or because "our soldiers died under the current
flag" are not going to change their minds.
Full release/results summary: UMR_Flag_ReferendumMar2016MediaRelease_final.pdf