What Is A Republic?

A republic is a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated head of state rather than a monarch. Today, there are many different types of republics.

In New Zealand, we elect our own representatives, our parliament, who then form our government.

What is a monarchy?

A monarchy is a state where the head of state is a monarch. That position is usually hereditary, and held by one family.

New Zealand is what is known as a “constitutional monarchy” because our head of state is an hereditary monarch, whose powers are limited by law and convention. Today in New Zealand the monarch plays an extremely small part of how New Zealand is governed.

What is a head of state?

Each nation-state appoints or elects a person as its head of state, or shares the position amongst a number of people. This important office represents the state’s historical claim to power and legitimacy within the nation.

Heads of state are given various titles according to whether a country is a republic or a monarchy. Examples include President, Captain-Regent, King, Queen, Emperor and Emir.

In most cases one person holds the position of head of state. They are given certain political powers according to a country’s constitutional rules. Some have executive powers, such as the President of the United States. Others are limited to a few constitutional powers, such as the power to appoint and dismiss government officials. Some countries have a purely ceremonial head of state with no power at all. Others have a specific constitutional role. Some carry out the functions of running the government and work as the head of a government (often called the Prime Minister). It all depends on the system chosen for that country.

New Zealand’s Constitution Act 1986 part one, section two defines our Head of State as :

Head of State

(1) The Sovereign in right of New Zealand is the head of State of New Zealand, and shall be known by the royal style and titles proclaimed from time to time.

(2) The Governor-General appointed by the Sovereign is the Sovereign's representative in New Zealand.

““I think most New Zealanders don’t easily accept unearned privilege. I think we accept, right down deep in our guts, that we’re pretty much as good as the next person.””
— Footrot Flats creator, Murray Ball.

Is New Zealand a republic or a monarchy?

At present, New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy. Our head of state is a monarch who lives in Great Britain, and is first and foremost the head of state of that country. The Governor-General, a person appointed on the binding advice of our Prime Minister, nominally represents the monarch. In practice, the Governor-General fills in as head of state. Because of this, some people describe New Zealand as a “de facto” republic, that is, a republic in all but name.

Our campaign exists to bring about a process to replace the monarch and governor-general with a citizen as head of state. We have set out how we believe this should happen in our policy statement.

““The Governor-General’s role is often described as the 3 Cs – constitutional, ceremonial and community. These three roles are seen as overlapping.””
— Dame Silvia Cartwright, former Governor-General.
““People tend to think the office of the Governor-General is of little significance, which is wrong, or that it represents a substantial check on the excesses of executive government, which is also wrong.””
— Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer

Why should New Zealand have its own head of state?

We've set out our reasons for why we believe New Zealand should have our own head of state here: what we stand for.

““I would go as far as to say that we are already a de facto republic, as is Australia. We have, to all intents and purposes the nominal head of state in our Governor-General””
— Former Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Isn’t the Governor-General oUr head of state? Surely having our own Governor-General is adequate?

No, the Governor-General is not our head of state.

New Zealand’s Constitution Act is very clear that the King, as Sovereign, is our head of state. This confusion arises because the Governor-General does all of the work of the head of state, and is delegated all of the Sovereign’s authority (by Letters Patent 1983). Today, the Sovereign has next to no constitutional role on a day-to-day basis, and almost no constitutional role in New Zealand at all - other than rubber-stamping the Prime Minister’s “advice” (effectively, a binding direction on who to appoint to the role) for our next Governor-General every five or so years.

The office of Governor-General has evolved to the point that it is almost now our actual head of state. She or he does all the work of the head of state - opening parliament, attending public ceremonies and every so often exercising the reserve powers. This is why some people (such as former Prime Minister Helen Clark, and historian Gavin McLean) describe the office as a “nominal” or “de facto” head of state - head of state in all but name.

This being said, the office of Governor-General is not our actual head of state, that position is still reserved for the British monarch, who gets a New Zealand title but little else for holding the position. Meanwhile, New Zealand is at a disadvantage on the global stage because we do not have a head of state of our own to represent us to the world. In the early 1990s, this was confirmed by Buckingham Palace and since then Governors-General have travelled overseas. However, they cannot represent New Zealand - when they travel, they are said to be representing the “King of New Zealand” - and are not given the same treatment as a head of state would receive. This is just one example of how a Governor-General is not adequate to represent our country to the world.

““Well, Mr Prime Minister, I understand that the Constitutional Rule is that you will nominate somebody and that I have no choice in the matter.””
— Queen Elizabeth II, to Sir Robert Menzies, former Australian PM .

What happens with Te Tiriti o Waitangi - The Treaty of Waitangi in a republic?

This is a key issue in the debate, and one that requires consultation with Māori. Our campaign’s position is that while the transition to an independent head of state won't change the status of the Treaty (and legal academics agree), an additional clause clarifying this and stating that the Crown is the "Government and People of New Zealand" should be in any legislation establishing a republic; further protecting the Māori-Government relationship. We believe that this transition represents a huge opportunity to clarify the future partnership between Māori and the Government.

For more information see our page on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and a republic.

What about our membership of the Commonwealth of Nations?

The majority of members of the Commonwealth today are republics, or have their own heads of state. Only a small number of states have the British monarch as their head of state. New Zealand doesn’t get any special privileges in the Commonwealth because we have the British monarch as head of state.

For more information, see our page on The Commonwealth and a republic

Won’t we end up with a US-style presidency?

No. The United States of America is probably the best known example of a republic in most people’s minds, so it’s no surprise that often when discussing this issue, people think this is a choice between a British monarch and a US-style presidency. The New Zealand public generally point to the fact that the US president is both head of state and head of government as a flaw in their system.

Our campaign proposes Aotearoa follow the example of many other countries with similar parliamentary systems as ours, and keep the head of state and head of government (the Prime Minister) separate. That way there is a clear separation of powers between the formation of government, and the leader of the largest party (or parties) in parliament.

Won’t we end up With a former politician as head of state?

No. We often hear this question posed as if it’s a given. Usually when it’s asked, the person asking means that we could end up with a US-style presidency, that is an executive head of state who is an elected politician.

Our campaign proposes that we appoint our next Governor-General through a resolution of parliament that requires a three-quarters majority. This is to ensure that the kind of great New Zealanders who serve as Governor-General now continue to be appointed to the office. Barbados recently adopted a similar system, and elected their last Governor-General as their first president. By requiring a three-quarters majority of votes, the Governor-General (who would become head of state on the transition to a republic) would be someone acceptable to all sides of poitics, that is, most likely to never have been a politician.

We would also add a clause, similar to Barbados, that explicitly bans both sitting MPs and former MPs from being elected as our head of state.

Won’t this change cost a lot of money?

No - often the claim that the change will cost a lot of money inflates things that aren’t really costs, and assumes that we don’t have to pay anything to be a monarchy or Governor-General. We currently spend about $9.3m a year on our governor-general, who is the Sovereign’s representative. The President of Ireland, head of state of a country about the same size as New Zealand, costs about the same as our Governor-General. There is no reason to think that a new head of state for New Zealand would cost any more than this.

We also have to pay for Royal tours every two to three years, which cost millions at a time.

The cost of transition isn’t massive either. Under our campaign’s proposal, there would be the expense of a referendum, a one-off cost (based on the most recent nationwide referendum in 2016) of about $20m. But that’s really it. Costs such as changing our notes and coins are things that we would have to pay for anyway when the monarch changes (and in the case of our currency, the Reserve Bank has made it clear that they won’t just replace all the currency in circulation at once). There is no legal requirement to change the coat of arms (there are plenty of republics that have crowns on there coats of arms!), government logos or the flag.

Our new head of state would live in Government House in Wellington, he or she would have the same staff as the Governor-General.

How can I support the campaign?

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