Following yesterday’s events in the United States, we received the usual responses from people claiming that the situation couldn’t occur in New Zealand. This goes back to the ridiculous and dangerous idea that New Zealand’s democracy depends on the monarchy, and not the public and their adherence to democratic norms, such as the rule of law.
Our CURRENT Constitutional arrangements mean that the USA situation could not Repeat itself in New Zealand
- Message to New Zealand Republic
The specific events in Washington DC - an invasion of the legislature - could easily be replicated in Wellington, New Zealand to prevent, say, the formation of a new government. To claim that New Zealand would be immune to such a mob because of the monarchy is naive, to say the least. The issue is whether there could be the pre-conditions for such action to take place.
As these debates go, it appears that some people claim that there’s a literal equivalence between the President of the United States’ actions (as both head of state and head of government of the United States) and the Queen as New Zealand’s head of state. That is nonsense. As we have pointed out a number of times, the monarchy is the most irrelevant part of our constitution. The Queen’s only constitutional action with respect to New Zealand is rubber-stamping the Prime Minister’s choice of Governor-General every six or so years.
What we’ve seen happen time and again during the Queen’s reign is that in the event of instability, the monarch stays as far out of the malaise as possible. In Fiji’s first coup of 1987, the Queen stayed well clear, likewise with the political instability in Pakistan when the Queen was head of state there in the 1950s, and likewise more recently in Papua New Guinea’s parliamentary - governor-general - military stoush. In the event, the monarchy was abolished in Fiji in a second coup in 1987, so that Fiji could leave the Commonwealth (following the rules of Commonwealth membership at the time, since amended) without having to face the music.
Far from protecting democracy, the monarchy simply ignores it. Which means, monarchy or republic, it’s up to us as citizens to maintain that democracy. We must dispel with the idea that an absentee head of state protects or democracy, or makes our politicians behave, or could (through loyalty from the military) prevent a military coup. None of those things is supported by history. It’s up to all of us to make our democracy work.