PM Chris Hipkins doesn’t think that New Zealand wants to be a republic, but most students disagree
Photo / NBC News
The coronation has been and gone but a conversation has emerged over whether King Charles should be New Zealand’s figure head.
In a post-cabinet press conference on the 8th of May, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins reiterated that New Zealand will not become a republic in his time as Prime Minister.
In a poll on Massive Magazine’s Instagram story, we asked if people watched the coronation of King Charles and if people think New Zealand should be a republic.
Out of the 118 people that answered the poll asking if they think New Zealand should be a republic, 84% said yes.
Out of the 144 people that answered the poll asking if they watched the coronation, only 15% said yes.
I spoke to a group of second year students, who preferred not to be named, and asked them what they thought.
Referring to the royal family, one of the students asked, “what do they even do?”
Another student said, “I don’t think they do anything for us other than visit every couple years and disrespect our culture, in Camilla’s case.”
This was in reference to an incident a few months ago when Queen Camilla ignored a pōwhiri welcoming her to Westminster Abbey.
The student continued, “I honestly don’t know how they contribute to New Zealand society at all, we don’t benefit from their wealth, and they take up space on our cash.”
Another student piped up to say, “We have our own King, if Australia can replace King Charles’ face on their money with Aboriginal art, then why can’t we put King Tūheitia’s face on ours? Like we don’t even use the same currency as them, so why are they on our money?”
Though Prime Minister Hipkins called himself a “theoretical republican”, he also said, “the constitutional arrangements that we have work at the moment, and there is no pressing need for change”.
On top of that, Hipkins didn’t think that New Zealanders wanted to be a part of a republic saying, “I think it will become clear when New Zealanders are ready to have that debate, and whether there's an appetite for it. I don't think there's an appetite for it at the moment.”
Leader of the National party, Christopher Luxon, didn’t think that New Zealanders wanted to be a republic at all.
In a statement he made shortly after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, he said, “I visit two or three towns in New Zealand a week, it just isn’t a topic of conversation that comes up”.