Cost of the monarchy

The cost of the monarchy is meant to be one of its advantages. It is claimed by supporters of the Monarchy that the institution costs New Zealanders "virtually nothing". This is not true. The monarchy requires the New Zealand taxpayer to maintain the Governor-General, pay for Royal tours, and lots of other pointless Royal trappings such as 21-gun salutes for Prince Phillip. This issue is critical to monarchists, as they know if the New Zealand public realise that a New Zealand republic is not really any more expensive than the monarchy, more New Zealanders are likely to support a republic.


The Estimates of Appropriations for the 2011 Budget have show that the office of New Zealand's Governor-General costs New Zealand taxpayers about the same as an actual head of state. The office has seen a cut in its budget by 3% to $7,092,000 million. The de facto head of state costs every New Zealander around $1.65 each. Monarchists claim, without an evidence, that the cost of the monarchy is about $4.4 million per annum, based on a claim that the monarchy costs every New Zealander $1 per year.

Meanwhile, the President of the Republic of Ireland, a country with a parliamentary system of government and with a population roughly the same size as New Zealand, will cost Irish taxpayers around $5.4 million New Zealand dollars (see "President's Establishment" - converted at today's Euro - NZ Dollar exchange rate) over the next year.

Cost of the Governor-General
Expense
 2010 - 2011 (actual)
 2011 - 2012 (budget)
Support Services and Maintenance of the residences
 $4,318,000
 $3,514,000*
Depreciation Expenses on Government Houses
 $1,708,000
 $1,962,000
Remuneration and Travel
 $1,279,000
 $1,616,000*
Total $7,305,000 $7,092,000


*due to the Governor-General Act 2010, these figures are now split off into different categories. 


These figures do not include unknown amounts spent on advising the Governor-General. We had previously estimated that cost at around $1.5 million per annum, but have not been able to verify that cost.

How does this compare with republics? The best comparison between the cost of our Governor-General and a republic is with the President of Ireland. The Irish Budget 2011 spells out the cost of the Irish Presidency, under the President's Establishment. The Republic of Ireland has a population of 4.5 million, compared to New Zealand's 4.4 million. GDP per capita (in USD) for Ireland is $38,549, while in New Zealand it is $26,966. The Republic of Ireland is a parliamentary republic, in other words the head of state is similar to our governor-general, being largely ceremonial. Like New Zealand, Ireland has a parliamentary style government. The comparison between the two countries is very close.

The Governor-General versus Ireland's President
Expense
 Governor-General (2011 est)
 President (2011 est)
Support Services and Maintenance of the residences
 $3,514,000
 $4,983,3901  
Depreciation Expenses on Government Houses
 $1,962,000
 N/A
Remuneration and Travel
 $1,616,000
 $2,707,0002 
Total $7,092,000
 $7,690,390


1. €3,151,000 total consisting of: €1,860,000 for maintaining the President's residence, €170,000 Training and development and incidental services + €127,000 postal and telecommunications services +  €994,000 for Office of Public Works (OPW) expenses at the President's residence; The Irish presidency has a centenarian's bounty budget of €1,040,000; something that doesn't exist in New Zealand, so it isn't counted. It appears the depreciation cost isn't counted.

2. €125,000 Travel and subsistence  + €1,587,000 Wages, allowances and salaries;

Not all of these figures have been fully verified, so the numbers are a rough picture only. However, as you can see, the cost of the Governor-General of New Zealand is roughly the same as the President of Ireland.

One expense not mentioned, of course, is the cost of electing the President.

The other expense the New Zealand taxpayer picks up with the monarchy is the cost of Royal Tours, which are fairly infrequent. According to the Department of Internal Affairs 2001 - 2002 Annual Report(PDF - see Vote Ministerial Services), the Queen's Royal Tour in 2002 cost the New Zealand taxpayer around $1 million, which is not a particularly large amount of money.

The head of state of a New Zealand republic need not cost any more than the Governor-General. There would not be any need for extra advisers or a "presidential palace". The Governor-General has adequate support staff, there is no reason why the number of staff would change.

In any case, the cost of the monarchy is hardly a good reason to keep it. There's no point keeping something because it's cheap. If the monarchy doesn't provide New Zealand with a head of state of its own, yet will still have to pay the upkeep of an office that does everything the head of state is meant to do anyway, that is a problem. A republic would rectify this situation, the de facto head of state would become the actual head of state.