Nu Tireni · Evidence Series · Part 39 · 2009 Cabinet File Audit

What did Cabinet actually decide about the United Tribes flag in 2009?

The 2009 process is more important than it first appears. Government did not ignore the United Tribes flag: it expressly included it as one of four nationally significant flags in a nationwide consultation. Cabinet then recognised the Tino Rangatiratanga flag as the preferred national Māori flag. The critical legal and historical question is what that decision did — and what it did not do.

Cabinet decisionConsultation recordEvidence boundary

The process began with the Auckland Harbour Bridge

In January 2009, Māori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples publicly called for a Māori flag to be flown from the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day. Prime Minister John Key said he would support flying two flags together if agreement could be reached on a preferred flag.

The Government then conducted a nationwide consultation in July and August 2009. Twenty-one public hui were held and more than 1,200 submissions were received.

The four candidates must be kept distinct

What Cabinet actually decided

Manatū Taonga records that 80.1 percent of submissions preferred the Tino Rangatiratanga flag. On 14 December 2009 Cabinet recognised it as the preferred national Māori flag and noted that it would complement the New Zealand Flag.

A later DPMC Cabinet paper from 2014 expressly cites CAB Min (09) 44/15 for that 2009 decision. That gives us an identifiable Cabinet minute reference rather than merely a press statement.

What Cabinet did not decide

The published record does not establish that Cabinet determined the constitutional status of the United Tribes flag. Nor does it show that Cabinet decided the flag had been extinguished, superseded in law, or stripped of its connection to He Wakaputanga.

The consultation asked which flag should be recognised as the preferred national Māori flag. That is a policy-selection question. It is not the same question as whether the 1834 flag should be flown on 28 October to mark He Wakaputanga.

Those are different decision questions. A 2009 preference decision should not be silently converted into a 2026 historical-status determination.

The strongest unresolved point is how officials characterised the United Tribes flag

The public-facing material tells us the flag was included. It does not yet tell us why officials included it, what historical advice Cabinet received about it, whether He Wakaputanga was discussed, whether the 1834 maritime recognition was considered, or whether officials treated it simply as one of several modern “Māori flag” options.

That missing reasoning matters because the categorisation can predetermine the outcome. If the United Tribes flag was assessed only as a competitor for the title “preferred national Māori flag”, its separate documentary connection to 1834 and 1835 may never have been substantively tested.

The exact records we now need

1. CAB Min (09) 44/15 in full;
2. the Cabinet paper presented by Pita Sharples or the responsible Minister that resulted in CAB Min (09) 44/15;
3. all appendices, briefing notes and agency advice accompanying that paper;
4. the full consultation document describing the four candidate flags;
5. the complete quantitative and qualitative submissions analysis;
6. all advice explaining why the United Tribes flag was included;
7. all historical advice concerning the 1834 selection, King William IV approval, Admiralty recognition and He Wakaputanga;
8. all records comparing the constitutional or historical status of the United Tribes flag with the Tino Rangatiratanga flag;
9. the implementation instructions that placed the preferred flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge from Waitangi Day 2010 onward.

Finding at this stage

Primary and official sources

Manatū Taonga — Tino Rangatiratanga flag and 2009 consultation ↗

Beehive — 15 December 2009 announcement of Cabinet decision ↗

DPMC — 2014 Cabinet paper citing CAB Min (09) 44/15 ↗