Kyle Lockwood

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Kyle Lockwood
Kyle Lockwood, New Zealand Silver Fern Flag designer portrait.jpg
Born 1977 (age 46–47)
Wellington, New Zealand
Residence Melbourne, Australia
Nationality New Zealand
Occupation Architectural designer
Known for
  • Flag designs
  • 10-year passport campaign

Kyle Lockwood (born 1977) is a New Zealand architectural designer based in Melbourne, Australia. He is known for leading the successful campaign for the Government of New Zealand to reintroduce the duration of the New Zealand passport to ten years, and for designing the two flags that came first and second in the first New Zealand flag referendum.

Lockwood's Silver Fern Flag design was voted in as the official alternative in the first referendum, in March 2016 the existing flag won the second referendum.

Early life

Lockwood was born in 1977 in Wellington, New Zealand. His father, Simon Lockwood, represented New Zealand in underwater hockey, and was team captain. As the team used the silver fern as their symbol, Lockwood grew fond of this symbol. His mother is Barbara Lockwood. He is descended from Ngāti Porou ki Hauraki Māori.[1] His early life was also influenced by his grandparents, Kathy and Walter Lockwood, who were both born in the United Kingdom, and served in the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force respectively. During World War Two, Walter Lockwood served as a Chindit behind Japanese enemy lines in Burma, Kyle attended Lyall Bay School and Evans Bay Intermediate School in the Wellington suburb of Kilbirnie. After high school at Rongotai College, he volunteered in the New Zealand Army before working for the Wellington City Council for four years in the building consent department. In 1999 he attended Massey University and studied architectural technology, graduating in 2001.[2]

Flag designs

Lockwood's silver fern flag design that came first in the first stage of the New Zealand flag referendums
The existing flag of New Zealand, which was retained in favour of Lockwood's Design

In one of the lectures at Massey University, the topic of attaching flagpoles to buildings came up, and Lockwood started sketching a flag. He considered a Union Jack but thought that a silver fern was more appropriate, and added the Southern Cross from the current New Zealand flag.[2] Lockwood put the design away and published it about three years later in 2003. The flag design won a competition in July 2004 run by The Hutt News.[2][3] The flag appeared on Campbell Live in 2005 and won an online poll that included the present national flag. In January 2014, John Key announced that a binding flag referendum could be held with in conjunction with the 2014 general election.[4] Whilst the date for the September 2014 election was missed, the New Zealand flag referendums went ahead and five of Lockwood's flags made it into an initial long list of 40 flags.[5]

Despite a UMR poll predicting a vote of 35%,[6] the Silver Fern Flag gained a significant minority in the second referendum with 43.2% of the vote, whilst the existing flag won with 56.6% of the vote.[7]

Lockwood's silver fern design features in the livery of the 'Electron' rocket[8] in Rocket Lab's New Zealand space program, The first Electron rocket is scheduled to launch in late 2016.[9]

Passport campaign

File:New Zealand Passport Biometric.jpg
New Zealand passport featuring the Silver Fern

In November 2005, the New Zealand Government reduced the validity of the New Zealand passport from ten years to five, the move was unpopular with the New Zealand travelling public. Lockwood's interest in the matter was raised when he witnessed a young mother refused travel for herself and her child because there were less than six months left on the mother's five-year passport. Lockwood set up a Facebook page called "Bring Back 10 Year NZ Passports"[10] in January 2013 and a website nzten.com, which attracted much attention.[11] The media picked up on the initiative during January 2013 and the first article appeared in Fairfax Media on 20 January.[11]

The group submitted the Petition of Kyle Lockwood[12] with 15,900 signatures to parliament on 4 December 2013.[13] Prior to the 2014 general election Lockwood successfully negotiated with all main political parties to adopt ten-year passport policy.[14] The prime minister, John Key, gave his first indication that a return to a 10-year validity period could be considered, in May 2014.[15] An official review of the validity period was announced in August 2014, a month before the general election.[16] Law changes were passed and since 30 November 2015, 10-year passports are available again for New Zealanders.[17]

References

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  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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