Naenae Primary School student Sam Cooper, 10, with the final four flag designs. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Will one of these be our new flag?
Three ferns and a black and white koru are the four designs that could go head-to-head with the current New Zealand flag in a referendum next year.
The public will be asked to rank them to decide the final option in a referendum to be held later this year. This will determine which of the designs will run against the current flag in a second referendum in March 2016 to decide which flag New Zealand will use in the future.
The designs are:
Silver Fern (Black & White) designed by Alofi Kanter from Auckland
Silver Fern (Red, White and Blue) designed by Kyle Lockwood, originally from Wellington
Koru, designed by Andrew Fyfe from Wellington
Silver Fern (Black, White and Blue), also designed by Kyle Lockwood.
A panel chose 40 from more than 10,000 designs submitted by the public, and Cabinet signed off on the final four yesterday
One of the long-listed designs - the 'Modern Hundertwasser' - had been removed following a copyright claim by the Hundertwasser Non-Profit Foundation, the panel said on its website.
Reaction to the announcement on Twitter was mixed, to say the least, with many taking the opportunity to poke fun at the news.
Prime Minister John Key said yesterday he would vote for three of the four designs signed off, but his preference was for a flag with a silver fern on it.
Key said there were economic benefits for New Zealand in changing the country's flag.
"While I don't think about it in economic terms, I think ultimately if New Zealand had a new New Zealand flag, and that better reflected the nation, and we were more easily identified, there's huge economic benefits as well as other benefits for New Zealand."
The first referendum is set to be held between 20 November and 11 December, and the entire project is expected to cost over $25 million.
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A version of this story was first published on radionz.co.nz.