The first thing Parliament did this week was discuss whether to congratulate New Zealand’s newish Head of State, King Charles III on his coronation.
Te Pāti Māori were not in favour of doing so and the Green Party were ambivalent about it, but ACT, National and Labour agreed to send the King an ‘address’ of congratulations.
The King as Head of State is more tangible for MPs than most kiwis. All MPs must swear an oath of allegiance to the Monarch as New Zealand’s Head of State as a prerequisite for taking their seats as MPs.
Damien O’Connor holds his ministerial oath as he is sworn in as a minister at Government House Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
That MP’s oath does not demand though that MPs be monarchists. Instead, they are allowed to consider and create alternative forms of government for New Zealand. In fact the idea of that is included in the oath itself (more on that later).
Both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have agreed that New Zealand discussing becoming a republic is inevitable. The only question is when. Both have deferred that idea.
The question isn’t even necessarily a party-political one. Most parties don’t have a determined point-of-view on the topic. There are one or two ‘out’ royalists within National but indications are that most MPs across Parliament tend towards the opposite camp.
When I met Shadow Leader of the House Michael Woodhouse (N) to chat through the coming week in Parliament I asked about the issue.
He describes himself as “an ambivalent royalist, but I really do enjoy the pomp.” He watched the coronation all the way until the flypast, so well after midnight.
As a five-term MP and twice-government minister he has, necessarily, sworn allegiance to the crown (and “heirs and successors”), on seven separate occasions. That was compulsory.
“He is, like-it-or-not our Head of State”.
That statement comes across more somewhat fiercely than he delivered it.
Shadow Leader of the House – National MP, Michael Woodhouse Photo: ©VNP / Phil Smith
Time to consider the alternatives
Each MP’s or minister’s oath of loyalty includes a line about “heirs and successors”. In other words, they swear loyalty not only to heirs, but to anyone who becomes the head of state. It is not compulsory that our head of state be a Windsor or a monarch.
It is entirely up to us and Michael Woodhouse seems very ready to begin considering the options.
“I'm quite relaxed about a process commencing which would say, ‘what would a country that is leaning more towards republicanism (but still remains a part of the Commonwealth of Nations), what would that look like?”
He knows that it is not even easy question, let alone easy answer.
“How do we reconcile that, not only with obligations by the Crown to Iwi? But also a number of other elements of our constitutional framework that are deeply rooted in the British system? And I think that is going to take quite some time to work out.”
Woodhouse says that it might “take several years to understand all of the questions, much less what the answers to those questions are.”
Why now? Mainly because the dominant excuse for inaction has now gone.
“We thought about waiting until the Queen passed, that was appropriate. That's happened. And we're now saying, ‘Oh, well, you know, now's not the right time we've got a recession’. Well, I don't think there'll ever be a ‘right time’ when there's nothing else to do but think about our constitutional monarchy. And at some point, I think we've got to start that work.”
“I'm not absolutely beating the drum for it, but I think at some point, a government will need to start to take some lead in that, and quietly work in that direction, ultimately to give the public the choice, with the clearest understanding of what the alternative or alternatives might be.”
But no major party was gunning in that direction today. Today MPs were (mostly) congratulating the “heir” and putting off those apparently inevitable considerations of possible “successors”.
