Former Minister, the late Jim Bolger believed that New Zealand should become a Republic. To that end he declined a Knighthood that would have given him the title Sir James Bolger. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said that it is inevitable New Zealand will become a Republic, but she did not consider a N.Z. Republic to be a national priority and thus never made a concerted effort to bring it about.
I am a republican myself. I am a paid member of the New Zealand Republican movement. My own thoughts are laid out below. All I will say is that I expect whenever it does happen that New Zealand will follow due constitutional process and have a binding referendum, whose outcome then acted on in the next two Parliamentary terms irrespective of who is in office.
The first reason is I have never believed that a country should have a foreign head of state or anyone not living in the country involved in its executive, judicial or legislative branches. Whilst King Charles III, his predecessors and – presumably Prince William in a couple of decades time – have a largely ceremonial role to play, it is not a role that cannot be performed in New Zealand, by a New Zealand citizen.
The second reason that New Zealand should become a republic is currently being splattered across the media every time former Prince Andrew is mentioned. Andrew Windsor has brought huge shame upon the Monarchy, and no one should be surprised that Buckingham Palace has had enough. Andrew is like a generator gone rogue, somehow generating media electricity despite attempts to turn the source off/disconnect it. Whilst it does not affect New Zealand directly, it does bring into severe disrepute the very institution that makes it possible for New Zealand to have a foreign Head of State: the Royal Family.
The third reason that New Zealand no longer have anything to do with the Monarchy is that becoming a Republic will not harm our obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi. It is well laid out in The New Zealand Handbook (Holden L.J., 2005) the obligations will just carry over to the President of the Republic. Interestingly none other than the then Monarchist League Chair, Noel Cox, has admitted that were New Zealand to become a republic would have no real change other than a change in the titles from Governor General to President, as it is a long standing principle that successive Governments honour the Treaty.
The fourth reason is that in having a Parliamentary based democracy, should New Zealand decide to become a Republic – and assuming it is our preferred type – New Zealand is already halfway to being a Parliamentary Republic. Simply put a Republic with a President who is largely a figurehead – opens/closes/dissolves Parliament, appoints Ministers and upholds the constitutional framework. Working examples as of 01 November 2025 for Parliamentary Republics around the world include: Germany, Italy, India, Czech Republic and numerous others.
The fifth reason is that New Zealand is simply quite capable of governing ourselves at all levels. We have grown into being one of the mature western nations in terms of how we conduct ourselves on the world stage and at home. We can run elections peacefully and are generally thought by international agencies such as Amnesty International and Transparency International to have responsible human rights records when it comes to governance. Going ahead and trusting ourselves with a New Zealand born and raised Head of State is the logical next step in our development.
The sixth reason for becoming one is that most nations in the British Commonwealth are already republics. It is not going to harm us, or the British monarchy if we become the next to update our Head of State. Various senior royals understand the possiblity exists. When Prince William and Princess Catherine visited Jamaica a few years ago, they acknowledged when meeting the Jamaican delegation at a gathering that becoming a republic is a likelihood. Some believe it to be offensive to the King/Queen of the day, but if that were true, then I strongly believe far fewer than 60% of the Commonwealth nations would have become Republics, were that so.
Although I think that the monarchy will be around for sometime yet, the haze of scandal and potential irrelevancy does loom on the horizon. With the last of the war generation passing on, and the unifying figure of Queen Elizabeth II now dead for 3 years, the hour of a N.Z. Republic creeps closer. It is just a matter of time before New Zealand sees the Royal Family as the relic in the cartoon.
Leftist Kiwi Writes 