New Zealand's Acting PM: Australia Needs New Flag

New Zealand's prime minister has been on maternity leave for little more than a month, and her acting PM is already picking a fight with Australia over the countries' very similar flags. "We had a flag that we've had for a long time, copied by Australia, and they should actually change their flag and honor the fact that we got there first with this design, being decided by a prime minister and his legacy," Winston Peters told TVNZ this week, per the New Zealand Herald. New Zealand's flag was adopted on March 24, 1902; Australia's flag was adopted on April 14, 1954. But, as the New York Times explains, Australia flew a version of its flag as early as 1901. New Zealanders have complained in the past that the similarity of the flags is a reminder of the era when New Zealand was a colony of Australia, but in 2016 voters rejected a measure to change their flag. (More New Zealand stories.)