One way to create a republic is to elect the Governor-General first, then hold a referendum to make the Governor-General New Zealand's head of state. The next representative of the Queen in New Zealand will need to be appointed sometime in 2011.

This page looks at the issues around the position of the Treaty of Waitangi in a future New Zealand republic. The Treaty is a key issue in the republic debate. There are two sub-issues - the constitutional position of the Treaty in a republic, and the standing or mana of the Treaty.

The Head of State Referenda Bill was a members' Bill drawn from the parliamentary ballot of members Bills on 14 October 2009, and voted down by parliament 68 - 53 on 21 April 2010. If passed would've enabled two referendums on the republic issue. The Bill itself presented two republican options - a directly elected head of state or an indirectly head of state; under both New Zealand would become a Parliamentary republic.

Commonwealth Common Cause is an alliance of Commonwealth republican groups, of which the New Zealand Republican Movement is a member. Sharing a Commonwealth heritage, four republican organisations in Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand joined forces in April 2005 to pursue their common cause, to bring about four new Commonwealth republics across the globe.