Black should be the new orange, NZ
It is ludicrous, and embarrassing, to maintain in the 21st century that you can do no better as a country, than find your heads of state from one family of English aristocrats, living in a palace in London. Seriously?
Whether or not New Zealand should become a republic or not, is none of my damn business, and I would never venture an opinion unbidden.
But . . . seeing as you’re asking a direct question, I must reluctantly respond . . . yes, of bloody course!
You have far more progressive politics than us in Australia, and have shown the way forward on many issues, led by your admirable policies on recognition of your first peoples, on same-sex marriage, on climate change, on asylumseekers.
On the republic, I think we are ahead of you and, good Lord willing and the creeks not rising, we hope to be a republic within four years.
But I suggest the reasons you should become a republic are exactly the same as ours – it is ludicrous, and embarrassing, to maintain in the 21st century that you can do no better as a country than find your heads of state from one family of English aristocrats, living in a palace in London. Seriously?
The abiding image you project to the world are your magnificent All Blacks, performing the haka. It says in wonderfully dramatic, theatrical form: ‘‘We are strong, we are independent, and we will take on the best the world can throw at us, and triumph.’’
But at the same time your system, as ours, says: ‘‘But two centuries on from colonisation, we still aren’t capable of running our own show, and need to hold the hand of Mother England, otherwise all will be lost.’’
I say, bullshit. Of course you can, and you should. And with your admirable prime minister leading the way, I suspect you will.
Peter FitzSimons is a former rugby great, an author and journalist, and the chair of the Australian Republican Movement