Friday 28 September 2007

Happy Birthday Noo Zealund

Wednesday this week - 26 September 2007 - was the centenary of our, I mean, my country, of becoming a Dominion.

Here's a copy of the original Proclamation declaring the change in status.






While it's important to celebrate history and heritage, it's also important that we ensure our status and traditions remain appropriate for our people and community as we grow as a nation.

I'm a big fan of New Zealand becoming a republic. The arguments for are compelling.

New Zealand will inevitably become a republic. It is a step that should be taken as part of redefining itself to reflect the realities of the modern world.

The Dominion editorial endorse New Zealand becoming a republic and stated that if anyone proposed a system of government where the head of state lived on the other side of the globe, who visited about once every five years and who had the job solely because her father had it before her, there would be few takers.

  • An informal poll suggests about 40 per cent believe New Zealand should become a republic, though there are differences over timing. That it is not more is surprising in a nation that prides itself on its independence, on its democracy, and on its egalitarianism. The suspicion must be that the only reason that New Zealand keeps a monarch is a belief that it cannot do better. That is mistaken. There are issues to be worked through - how much power a president should have, how he or she should be chosen - but New Zealanders should have confidence in themselves to do that, and to have one of their own as head of state.

Helen Clark as NZ Prime , is far more powerful in the constitutional monarchy than she would be under a Republic. Bolger knew in the 1990s that championing a Republic didn't risk losing support. I believe that Clark genuinely supports a republic, however is not very public on this issue. I'll ask her when I visit next month!

Anyway, the Queen should make the following Proclamation on the centenary of Dominion Day...






This proclamation is, of course, not real and, in terms of S13 of the Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981, the display or exhibition of the Coat of Arms in the mock proclamation is not done with purported approval of the New Zealand Government or the Crown!


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