2015–16 New Zealand flag referendums have markedly low attendance. The consideration panel noted strong online engagement with over 850,000 visits to the website and 1,180,000 engagements on social media. The panel reported that feedback found the themes of freedom, history, equality, respect and family to be the most significant to New Zealanders, however it was later revealed that those themes were dwarfed by the amount of feedback critical of the flag change process. From the submitted designs they found the most common colours were white, blue, red, black, and green. The most common elements incorporated into the flag designs were the Southern Cross, silver fern,
Flag of New Zealand on 24 March 2016, the existing 1902 flag was chosen to remain the New Zealand flag. 56.7% were in favour of retaining the flag, with a voter turnout of 67.3%. 43.3% were in favour of changing the flag to the Lockwood design. A red version of the flag, officially called the Red Ensign and nicknamed the "red duster", was adopted in 1903 to be flown on non-government ships. It was flown on New Zealand merchant ships during both world wars. The Red Ensign has sometimes been flown incorrectly on land in the belief that it is the national flag. The