Of flags and national anthems

That is a preference that does not square with the principle of equality as it is expressed in Fiji's constitution and New Zealand's Bill of Rights.

As with the flags, the national anthems need to be updated to reflect where both nations are in the 21stC.

There is a precedent. The Australian national anthem was changed from God Save the Queen to the boring but secular Advance Australia Fair in 1984. Many Australians would have preferred the simpler and more meaningful Waltzing Matilda as a statement of the Australian character.

Fiji and New Zealand, I suggest, can devise anthems that avoid the choice of a conservative old poem like Advance Australia Fair, to favour something more positive and meaningful, but at the same time appropriately secular. If and when they do, they should be aware that Christian groups especially will immediately seek to undermine it by adding their own verses, as detailed here: Undermining Australia's secular national anthem

As I argued, it should be an offence, not just a breach of protocol, to alter a national anthem for a partisan purpose. And, of course, the Australian flag should be changed too, but so long as Australia remains a timid constitutional monarchy, too afraid to stand on its own two feet, that is unlikely to occur any time soon.