New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday said he personally favors his country becoming a republic, but it is not a change he intends to push for as leader.
Hipkins made the comments to reporters hours before he was due to depart for this week’s coronation of Britain’s King Charles III.
New Zealand, a former British colony, is self-governing, but Charles retains a largely ceremonial role as head of state and king. Charles is represented in New Zealand by a governor-general.
Photo: EPA-EFE
As with many former British colonies, New Zealand continues to wrestle with what, if any, constitutional role the British monarchy should play in modern times.
Barbados chose to become a republic in 2021, while Jamaica last year said it plans to pursue independence.
Australia in February decided to remove the British monarch from the last of its banknotes, although an image of Charles is expected to feature on coins.
“Ideally, in time, New Zealand will become a fully independent country, will stand on our own two feet in the world, as we by and large do now,” Hipkins said.
“I don’t think that swapping out the governor-general for some other form of head of state is necessarily an urgent priority right now, though,” he added.
Hipkins faces an election later this year and has already ditched many of his government’s more contentious policies as he tries to refocus the political agenda on what he describes as bread-and-butter issues, such as the cost of living.
Hipkins unexpectedly rose to power following the shock decision in January of former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern to step down.
Ardern had previously said she believed New Zealand would eventually become a republic, but it was not a legislative priority.
However, Hipkins stated his own support of republicanism more forcefully than Ardern.
“I believe we should ultimately be an independent country,” he said.
However, he said that the current constitutional arrangements were working well and he was not interested in pushing the republic debate onto New Zealanders.
“Honestly, I think it is something for New Zealanders to instigate a discussion on, and there isn’t a groundswell of support for having this particular debate right at the moment,” Hipkins said.
Hipkins inadvertently said that he had a meeting planned with Charles during his trip, but he declined to say what they would discuss.
While in London, Hipkins also plans to meet with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to advance a free-trade deal the two nations struck in 2021.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS