Some controversy surrounds the omission of the Tibetan flag stamps which were produced for an Auckland group, the "Friends of Tibet (NZ) Society" but subsequently deliberately covered by New Zealand Post with airmail stickers when noticed on mail. The stamps were not made available for purchase from New Zealand Post by stamp collectors.

The New Zealand Post terms and agreements for personalised postage state that they will refuse to print any image at their discretion, if the image may be offensive to any ethnic group, contain any political message or could be associated with a current or former political cause or leader. In the past New Zealand Post have refused to print stamps for a standing member of New Zealand's Parliament during an election citing this rule.

New Zealand Post printed 5,000 of the 50c and 1,000 of the $1 denominations. The stamps feature the flag of Tibet, also known as the snow lion flag, which was introduced by the 13th Dalai Lama using the design motif of Japanese military flags. The flag continued to be used after the incorporation of Tibet into the People's Republic of China. The Tibetan government at the time stressed that the flag was an army flag and not a national flag.

In 1959, The Dalai Lama together with a group of Tibetan leaders and followers fled to India and set up the Government of Tibet in Exile. They retained the flag and it's usage was banned in the People's Republic of China. The flag is now also used as a symbol of the Tibetan independence movement. Tibet has not received foreign diplomatic recognition as an independent state and in 1945 China's sovereignty over Tibet was not questioned by the United Nations.

Below the flag on the stamp is a black panel containing the dates "1959 - 2009". At the time of printing, New Zealand Post employees were most probably not aware that the dates commemorated the "50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese occupation". After receipt of the stamps, however, the Tibetan Society over-printed text in blue on the selvedges of the sheets of stamps - with a website URL down both sides, a heading along the top, and a three-line political inscription alleging "illegal Chinese occupation" at the bottom.

A New Zealand Post spokesman explained that printing the stamps had been a mistake as the stamps breached their terms and conditions and that the act of covering the stamps was deliberate. New Zealand Post tried to get the stamps returned for destruction and have stated they would not do a reprint of the stamp.