King Charles’ Aussie tour: Is it time for New Zealand to become a republic? - The Front Page

King Charles is heading down under for his first tour since taking the throne but New Zealand is not on the itinerary. Photo / Getty Images

Should or shouldn’t New Zealand become a republic? This question has sparked fierce debate for decades.

It’s back on the agenda as King Charles heads down under for his first tour since taking the throne – but is skipping New Zealand.

From this evening, King Charles and Queen Camilla will attend engagements in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales. They’ll greet crowds at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, in the Opera House forecourt in Sydney, and join in on a community barbeque in Paramatta.

The pair will then set off to Samoa for the 27th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) under the theme “One Resilient Common Future: Transforming our Commonwealth”.

Perhaps an apt name, given that the visit has prompted debate in Australia about whether it’s time to become a republic.

The King himself confirmed that the matter was up to the Australian people to decide whether the country would remain a constitutional monarchy.

So, will New Zealand follow suit?

Republic NZ’s Peter Hamilton spent decades as a diplomat. He is a former Deputy-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, served as New Zealand Ambassador to Germany, and held various posts in Fiji, Canada, Geneva, Samoa, and Singapore.

He told The Front Page it’s time for New Zealand to have a Kiwi as our head of state.

“The head of state, in any country, including New Zealand, has a very important role to play.

“In our case, it’s a ceremonial role. It’s not executive, as it is in the United States, for example. It’s a ceremonial role, but it personifies the country itself.

“So the head of state has to be a person, in my view, who lives among us and can rise above domestic politics,” he said.

It has been over 22 years since New Zealand was last visited by its head of state - when Queen Elizabeth II came for a five-day tour in February 2002.

In New Zealand, Hamilton said, our Governors-General have been hampered in their international role because other countries know our head of state is somebody living a long way away in London.

“We argue that the head of state in New Zealand should be chosen by Parliament and should remain a non-executive ceremonial role as the Governor-General currently does.

“Currently, Dame Cindy Kiro does all the work of any normal head of state except for the international dimension. But, she doesn’t get the respect and the manner that she should be accorded because of course, Governor-General means she is in the B team. She is the King’s deputy in New Zealand and therefore doesn’t have the mana that would go with being the actual head of state.”

The Front Page reached out to Monarchy New Zealand’s chair, Dr Sean Palmer, to add to the debate, but he declined to comment, saying, “I’ve seen this angle done a thousand times and it just doesn’t seem very interesting any more.”

The Monarchy New Zealand website does provide some myth-busting facts in its endeavour to implore New Zealanders to stick with the status quo.

It points out that the King receives no salary for serving as New Zealand’s head of state, and the monarchy “involves only a small outlay for royal engagements and tours in this country and the modest expenses of the Governor-General’s establishment. This figure is about one dollar per person per year.”

The group touts the monarchy as a “vital component of our Government, a guarantee of our democracy, and a sign of our maturity and independence as a nation” and states “the monarchy adds more colour and ceremony to the Government.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more about how electing a New Zealand head of state would work and how it would look.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.