Our head of state, Kuini o Aotearoa, aka Queen Elizabeth II of England, looks likely to die relatively soon, yet our government is unprepared as to whether her heir should become our next head of state, one of this country’s highest-ranking former diplomats says.
“We will soon be required to face the question, ‘After Elizabeth — what next?’,” Peter Hamilton, the former Deputy-Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade wrote in his just published memoir, New Moons for Sam.
He says it would be completely inappropriate for Elizabeth’s son Charles or his heir, William, to become Aotearoa’s next head of state.
“In my view, Charles and Camilla and the Windsor family generally do not fit the requirements, they never have,” Hamilton wrote.
Hamilton, who campaigns for New Zealand Republic (NZR) said in a recent talk to Wellington’s University of the Third Age (U3A), that it will become obvious when the Queen dies that “Charles and Camilla aren’t really what we need in this day and age”.
“Camilla has only been here twice, so it would be very odd to have her as the wife of our head of state.”
And while next in line, William, and wife Kate were “a nice couple”, they had little connection to Aotearoa. Hamilton finds it peculiar that the person who represents us as head of state “is in fact a non-resident, non-citizen and is a British aristocrat who basically represents a class system”.
Most politicians from David Lange on, with the notable exceptions of NZ First leader Winston Peters and former PM John Key, have expressed the view that Aotearoa becoming a republic is inevitable.
Current Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she believes we will make that move in her lifetime although it “is not something this Government is prioritising at all,” she told The Guardian.
She also told the newspaper that “it was a decision for the royal family” and that the relationship between Māori and the Crown had to be resolved before the transition can occur.
But Hamilton thinks Ardern is wrong or confused on both those counts. Firstly, there is zero motivation for the monarchy to alter the status quo. Aotearoa must take agency on the final step in our constitutional path towards becoming a true, independent democracy.
Regarding Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Hamilton says there is much disingenuous myth-making related to Maori signing Te Tiriti with the British Crown suggesting that becoming a republic upends Te Tiriti protections.
“It’s an argument you often hear. The British Crown very early on, effectively washed its hands of the Treaty on the basis that the imperial government was no longer responsible for such matters,” he said.
“Nothing was done to redress grievances the Māori had under the Treaty until a localised New Zealand government began the long process through the establishment of the Treaty of Waitangi Tribunal.”
Hamilton said it would be a straight-forward matter to transfer current protections provided by the Crown to the new head of state.
Dame Patsy Reddy’s comment on her last day in office as Governor General (GG) last month agreed it would be easy to switch the head of state role when Aotearoa becomes a republic. “It’s a dynamic role. When the people want to change it, it can easily be changed,” she told TVNZ.
NZR’s most recent polling shows most age groups strongly favour a Kiwi being our next head of state. In the 18–30-year-old group, 59% supported that view against 37% favouring the monarchy. Only in the over 60s is there a slim majority supporting the monarchy.
Hamilton said much of the opposition is based on the very negative and wrong notion that a head of state, president, would combine the office of head of government with that of head of state.
National Party leader, Judith Collins, is among those who are confused on that front, either mischievously, or by ignorance.
However, NZR envisages the new head of state would have almost identical responsibilities as the current GG.
As well as swearing in new prime ministers and accepting their resignations, the GG’s main power is the ability to dissolve Government and fire the Prime Minister, something never done in Aotearoa, although infamously done in Australia by Governor-General Sir John Kerr in 1975.
NZR believes the process of becoming a republic should be made as simple as possible as recommended by republic advocate, former Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Palmer in his book Towards Democratic Renewal.
To avoid election fatigue, NZR advocates the head of state should be appointed by parliament, either by a simple, or a two-thirds, majority, rather than by direct election.
NZR proposes two referenda – firstly on whether voters support the concept of a Kiwi as head of state, and, assuming the first referendum is supported, approving the process of appointment, together with entrenching Te Tiriti.
Dr Sean Palmer, Chair of Monarchy NZ, says anyone who thinks creating a constitution and shifting to a republic would be a simple process is being “staggeringly idealistic.”
“The mythology is that it is possible to govern a country in a simple way, that you can find a constitution anywhere in the world that outlines how a country will work in its entirety and that it would be accessible to everyone.”
However, the minimal change route envisaged by NZR doesn’t involve writing a formal constitution and offers little perceptible change other than the symbolism – an important, but underrated aspect, according to Hamilton.
“We still have to take some final steps to create a fully independent and sovereign nation. The head of state of a country embodies the statement about who we are and what we are and what we want to project to the wider world,” he said.
Despite this important symbolism, Hamilton accepts that transiting to mature, independent, nationhood is not burning for Kiwis or the government.
Even on this government’s supposedly burning issues, climate change and poverty alleviation, the fire burns lukewarm as Covid consumes all oxygen, so the chance of it being prepared for Elizabeth’s death and not being caught unprepared for transitioning to a republic, seems next to zero.
A snap poll among the 360 logged for Hamilton’s U3A talk, showed 84% of the 291 who voted, supported having a Kiwi as our head of state. Almost all participants were over 60.
(Simon Louisson reported for The Wall Street Journal, AP Dow Jones Newswires, New Zealand Press Association and Reuters and briefly was a political and media adviser to the Green Party.)
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