Aussies rewriting Gallipoli history

Jane Bowron’s column Aussie’s just not that into us any more, mate (October 19) struck a chord with me.

My wife and I have just spent eight days in Sydney and Canberra. In Canberra, my sister and her family (all Australian) took me to the Australian War Memorial Museum, a quite magnificent place to visit. While there, we joined a tour of the Gallipoli exhibits.

The guide, using a very large touch-screen display, gave a summary of the campaign and described the Allies as made up of ‘‘British, French, Australian and Indian troops’’.

Taken aback a little, I waited for New Zealanders to be mentioned (Anzac and all that), but three or four references to the Allies later, not a mention of New Zealand’s effort.

We left the tour then. If I had not been with family, I may have taken issue with the guide.

My nephew had warned me before entering the building that ‘‘Australia had won the war singlehanded’’, and he was apologetic and a bit embarrassed by the one-sidedness of the commentary.

But hey, in my life I have been buggered about by experts – the Aussies bother me not one whit.

BILL DAVIDSON The Electoral Commission has announced that the question in the first flag referendum is: ‘‘If the New Zealand flag changes, which flag would you prefer?’’

Obviously, the correct way to answer that question is to choose one flag from those on offer – probably by ticking a box.

But if you answer it that way, your vote will possibly be invalid. What voters are actually required to do is to rank the flags.

How is the voter to know this? There will be instructions on the voting form. I hope that they will be more expertly developed than the question. But few people read instructions unless they feel they need them. I have the impression that most people expect to be choosing one flag. We can only hope that publicity about the need to rank will prompt them to ignore the question.

It is plain silly to ask a question that contradicts what is really being asked for. It is scandalous to do that in a national referendum that is costing so much.

An experienced questionnaire designer (like me) could have told the commission in a minute that it was the wrong question.

KIM SAFFRON

Paraparaumu

Petone [abridged]