Palmerston North: Hotbed of republicanism

It appears I live in a hotbed of republicanism, with the Manawatu Standard coming out in support of a republic. But rather than following Michael Cullen's gradualist proposal, they suggest moving faster:

His suggestion was that upon the Queen's death, Parliament could take a vote (needing a 75 per cent majority) to transfer power to whoever is Governor-General at the time.

Instead of being the monarch's representative in New Zealand, the Governor-General would effectively be a temporary head of state, while the country sorted out which path it wanted to take.

In theory, that would work, but would we want a nation left in limbo while a decision was made about how it was run? Surely, it would make more sense to make our minds up before the Queen passes on (as morbid as that sounds).

And why does that change have to happen then? If the country decided beforehand that it wanted to become a republic or during the reign of King Charles III, we should make the choice on our own terms and on our own timetable, rather than basing such an important decision on a random date in the future.

Well, we should - but it might be harder that way, and result in no change at all. More importantly, I think its a mistake to describe a post-monarchical elected Governor-General as "a temporary head of state". They are already our head of state in all but name, and Cullen's proposal would simply formalise that. This is unlikely to please those who want greater change, but one of the standard responses to the issue of republicanism is to say "it ain't broke, so why fix it". This takes that attitude, and turns it into a virtue. Because with the exception of the foreign monarch, our constitutional structure isn't particularly broken. We have a strong democracy, with good institutions; the twink republic recognises that, and preserves those institutions, while excising the monarchical poison. The result is pretty much the same as we have now, only without the Queen. And if we want to move to other arrangements, we can then look on them on their own merits, without the distraction of the monarchy.

This is a disturbingly conservative position. But its an achievable one, and one I think many New Zealanders (including myself) would be happy with. Because at the end of the day, I don't want an executive presidency, or a Senate, or a Treaty House - I want Westminster and MMP, but without the Queen. And that's not so hard to get.