KIRI CAMPBELL

Nu Tireni · Evidence Series · Part 49 · December 2009 Bridge Record

What did NZTA record about the United Tribes flag in December 2009?

The 17 December 2009 NZ Transport Agency Board minute contains a detail that materially changes the flag trail. Before recording the Prime Minister's announcement that the Tino Rangatiratanga flag was the preferred national Māori flag, the minute reproduces earlier proposed wording that the United Tribes of New Zealand Ensign be flown on Waitangi Day as the “first” New Zealand flag alongside the current New Zealand flag.

17 December 2009Board paper 09/12/0298United Tribes Ensign“first” New Zealand flag

The minute says more than we previously extracted

The December minute revisits the Board's November 2008 Auckland Harbour Bridge flag policy. In doing so, it records proposed wording that the flag then described as the United Tribes of New Zealand Ensign be flown on Waitangi Day as the “first” New Zealand flag, with the current New Zealand flag flying from the adjacent flagpole.

Immediately after that, the Board notes the Prime Minister's 14 December announcement that the Tino Rangatiratanga flag was the preferred Māori flag and amends the earlier resolution so that the Tino Rangatiratanga flag would instead be flown on Waitangi Day beside the New Zealand flag.

Finding 49AThe United Tribes flag was not merely an abstract candidate in the national Māori flag consultation. It appears inside NZTA's own Auckland Harbour Bridge policy record as a proposed Waitangi Day flag and was expressly described there as the “first” New Zealand flag.

That does not mean NZTA declared it the current national flag

The wording must be read carefully. The minute distinguishes the United Tribes flag as the “first” New Zealand flag and the modern statutory flag as the “current” New Zealand flag. That is a historical classification, not a legal determination that the United Tribes flag remained the operative national flag in 2009.

What the minute establishes

NZTA's Board-level record recognised the United Tribes Ensign as the first New Zealand flag and contemplated its ceremonial use on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

What it does not establish

That NZTA considered the flag legally superior to the current New Zealand flag, that it retained unchanged constitutional status, or that the Board had already finally approved it for Waitangi Day 2010.

The timing is crucial

The Board meeting occurred three days after the Prime Minister announced the outcome of the national Māori flag process. The Board therefore had to reconcile its existing bridge-policy work with a new Government-level decision identifying Tino Rangatiratanga as the preferred national Māori flag.

The minute shows how that reconciliation occurred operationally: the Board recorded the Prime Minister's announcement and amended its earlier bridge resolution to specify the Tino Rangatiratanga flag.

Administrative consequenceThe United Tribes option appears to have existed inside the bridge-policy machinery before the Cabinet/Prime Minister outcome was operationalised. The December 2009 Board amendment is therefore a visible point at which the transport agency's proposed flag choice was aligned with the Government's national Māori flag decision.

This matters directly to 28 October 2026

The present request is not asking Government to reverse the 2009 preferred-national-Māori-flag decision. It asks for the United Tribes flag to be flown for one historically specific day connected to He Wakaputanga.

The December 2009 record is powerful for that narrower question because NZTA itself previously contemplated the United Tribes flag for the Auckland Harbour Bridge and identified it by its historical status as the first New Zealand flag. That makes it harder to characterise a 2026 request as administratively unprecedented or as involving an unknown symbol.

28 October consequenceThe strongest framing is now historical commemoration, not competition with Tino Rangatiratanga. The 2009 record shows the two flags were already capable of being distinguished: one by its 1834 “first New Zealand flag” pedigree, the other by the Government's later decision to recognise it as the preferred national Māori flag.

The most important missing document is still Board paper 09/12/0298

The public minute tells us the Board's resolution, but it does not disclose the full Chief Executive paper that sat behind it. Board paper 09/12/0298 was kept in Committee indefinitely to permit free and frank discussion. The underlying paper may reveal who proposed the United Tribes wording, why it was described as the first New Zealand flag, what historical material was supplied to the Board, and whether He Wakaputanga was expressly mentioned.

The next request should therefore seek:

  1. Board paper 09/12/0298 in full, including all attachments;
  2. the exact earlier resolution or draft from which the United Tribes wording was reproduced;
  3. all briefing material identifying the United Tribes Ensign as the first New Zealand flag;
  4. all communications between NZTA, the Ministry of Transport, Te Puni Kōkiri and ministerial offices between 26 November 2008 and 17 December 2009 concerning the bridge flag;
  5. any advice received after CAB Min (09) 44/15 or the Prime Minister's 14 December announcement;
  6. any record explaining why the United Tribes proposal was replaced with Tino Rangatiratanga for Waitangi Day rather than retained for another commemorative occasion.

Finding 49

Finding 49The 17 December 2009 NZTA Board minute records a proposed Auckland Harbour Bridge Waitangi Day arrangement in which the United Tribes of New Zealand Ensign was described as the “first” New Zealand flag and would fly beside the current New Zealand flag. The same minute then notes the Prime Minister's 14 December announcement that Tino Rangatiratanga was the preferred Māori flag and amends the bridge resolution accordingly. This does not prove continuing constitutional status for the United Tribes flag, but it does establish that NZTA's own bridge-policy machinery recognised its distinct historical pedigree and contemplated its ceremonial use. For the 28 October 2026 request, that is direct administrative precedent relevant to historical commemoration.

Primary and official sources

NZTA Board minutes — 17 December 2009, Board paper 09/12/0298 ↗

NZTA Board minutes — 26 November 2008, Board paper 08/11/0079 ↗

Manatū Taonga — United Tribes flag history ↗

Beehive — 15 December 2009 national Māori flag announcement ↗

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