Ele Ludemann: Fly the flag for Suffrage Day

Katrina Briggs’ request to fly the Suffrage Flag at parliament on on Suffrage Day, September 19, has been declined.

It seemed like a simple and uncontroversial request. I asked if the violet, green, and white striped Women’s Suffrage¹ flag could please be flown at Parliament on the 19th September each year. That day in 1893 was when New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to enshrine the right for women to vote in legislation.

It was kind of a big deal, and worth a fluttering flag in commemoration at the place it happened, I thought. So, I emailed the Speaker of the House at the Speaker’s Office, which is the place to send these requests, to ask for it. . .

To put things into perspective about my request to fly the Women’s Suffrage flag, here’s a bit of context – between 2016 to 2021 the Rainbow flag was flown at Parliament to commemorate the passing of the Homosexual Law Reform Act in 1986. Why it stopped being flown on its own after that, I don’t know. Perhaps it was because since 2018 it had been included with the Trans, Bisexual, and Intersex flags flown for ‘International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia’ – i.e. IDAHOBIT Day. The Pride flag has also been added to that array since then, and is one of the four of those five flags which is flown for no notable achievement whatsoever.

Penny Marie from ‘Let Kids be Kids’ has a video on her Substack of all the above-mentioned IDAHOBIT flags being flown outside Parliament in May this year. With that in mind, it didn’t seem like a big ask to get the Women’s Suffrage flag flown for a day, as well, seeing as it was a notable achievement and something in the history books for NZ to boast about.

Commemorating being the first self-governing country to give women the vote ought to be a far better reason to fly a flag at parliament than IDAHOBIT flags which celebrate ideology not history.

I was wrong, and my request was declined. . .

Katrina already had a petition requesting that the flag is flown every Suffrage Day:

That the House of Representatives commemorate the day New Zealand women won the right to vote on 19 Sept 1893, by flying the purple, white, & green Women’s Suffrage flag at Parliament on that day each year.

Petition reason

New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world where women achieved our right to vote. The white camellia is a known symbol of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, but the purple, white, & green Women’s Suffrage flag from the UK is sometimes used informally here. I think flying this flag outside Parliament on 19th Sept each year will commemorate this historic achievement for every New Zealand woman, and will also remind us to keep striving for that which is important. . . .

Had her request to fly the flag been accepted, she would have withdrawn the petition.

Since the request was declined, the petition is still live and you can sign it here.

Unless, and until the petition succeeds, women will be flying the flag themselves:


Click to view

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.