A New Flag for New Zealand in Black and White?

I'm a vexillophile, as I confessed earlier here, to a Russian. I love flags, especially black and white ones, the optimum in flag design as I wrote here earlier.

New Zealand wants a new flag for a couple of very good reasons. Look at the current New Zealand flag:

It is a defaced Blue Ensign with the Union Flag in the canton, and four red stars with white borders to the right. The stars represent the constellation of Crux, the Southern Cross a Wikipedia nicely puts it.

The problem here is twofold. First it looks like a flag of an old colony of the Brittish Empire, which it is very unfittingly so for a modern country so far away from Albion. Secondly it is easily confused with the flag of Australia (and a bunch of other flags with the Union Jack in the canton, the top corner next to the hoist).

New Zealand needs a flag which is symbolic of New Zealand as a free, independent country with its own culture and history as a melting pot of Maori, Polynesian, European and more recently Asian influences. 
The design and selection of a new flag for New Zealand will follow a referendum where New Zealanders can vote for change (yes/no) and for one out of three or four designs. This will happen before the end of 2015.

For years New Zealanders have proudly identified on sports fields with the silver fern. On another note it is incorporated in the badges of most Army units. That is why this design makes a very good chance of becoming the first black and white national flag in the modern era.

This design matches other pacific nation flags. It could just be the banner of a Japanese prefecture.

I like it.