Dame Cindy Kiro and her husband, Dr Richard Davies, with their dogs, Pebbles, left, and Lucy, at Government House in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell, File
Dame Cindy Kiro and her husband, Dr Richard Davies, with their dogs, Pebbles, left, and Lucy, at Government House in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell, File
Opinion
OPINION
Slowly, painfully slowly, we seem to be emerging from the national turmoil and health challenges inflicted by Covid-19. The global pandemic has taken a toll, and not only on individual Kiwis. It has disrupted our economy and our international trade links.
How can we best re-engage with our internationaltrading partners as we rebuild overseas markets and establish new trade links?
In this context, the Governor-General has an important role to play.
Most countries have a head of state as a focus of their national identity. They actively promote their country overseas by opening doors and raising their country's profile in international markets.
Who is our head of state and do they perform this international role for us?
In a recent survey by New Zealand Republic, an embarrassing 82 per cent of New Zealanders who responded could not identify their head of state. Most thought it was the Prime Minister or the Governor-General. It is in fact Queen Elizabeth II. Most New Zealanders cannot name the current Governor-General either. It is Dame Cindy Kiro.
Dame Cindy is the Queen's representative in New Zealand, in effect, her deputy. She is appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The rules for appointment are a bit vague – there is an assumption that the Leader of the Opposition is consulted but that does not always happen. Neither does Cabinet have to concur.
Queen Elizabeth commands universal respect. I was privileged to meet her when I was ambassador in Germany some years ago when she was on a state visit to Berlin (she hasn't visited us in over 20 years). Here was our Kiwi head of state, but it became obvious that she could only ever promote the UK in her dealings with Germany. Never New Zealand.
Peter Hamilton. Photo / Supplied
This is where New Zealand misses out. Unlike most other countries, we do not have a head of state who can represent us overseas, helping to open up new markets and strengthen our relationships with key partners.
Successive New Zealand governments haven't actively used the office of Governor-General to promote New Zealand overseas. Partly this is because the Governor-General does not always command the respect and mana, both domestically and internationally, that they would if they were our actual head of state. Dame Cindy's current role is more like that of a vice-president, not a president.
That needs to change. Over the next few years, as we transition to having our own head of state, we could plan to make much greater use of the Governor-General internationally, through her leading high-level missions with key New Zealand business people. She could play a particularly valuable role in promoting our education exports and promoting New Zealand as a tourist destination.
The Prime Minister does this as well, as recent visits to Singapore and Japan, and her widely publicised visit to the US, have shown, but her primary focus has to be domestic. The time she can spend overseas promoting New Zealand is limited.
We need to use all the resources at our disposal in a more focused and targeted programme of international engagement. This is where the Governor-General, and eventually our own head of state, can assist our economic recovery.
With the eventual passing of Queen Elizabeth, we will have no choice but to accept Prince Charles as our King and the former Camilla Parker-Bowles as our Queen. His stilted performance at the recent opening of the UK parliament demonstrated Charles and Camilla are not a dynamic focus for New Zealand's international image and engagement.
We need to give careful thought to transitioning the office of our Governor-General to that of our own head of state. He or she should be appointed by a Parliamentary majority (say 70 per cent, to ensure the office remains non–partisan). It should not be open to past or present politicians and should not be directly elected (to avoid a heavily politicised US-style presidency).
A Kiwi head of state, able to work hard for New Zealand internationally, would be an important element in our strategy to emerge from the past couple of years of lockdowns and economic disruption. We can be sure other countries will use their heads of state in a similar manner.
• Peter Hamilton is a former deputy secretary a the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was a diplomat for 35 years, including postings as ambassador to Germany and high commissioner to Samoa and Singapore.
