Professor Matthew Palmer speaks with John Roughan of The New Zealand Herald about his new book, The Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand's Law and Constitution. The son of former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer argues in the book for a number of changes, but also argues:

None of this, he insists, should happen unless it follows a well-informed public discussion and is approved at a referendum. He has a proposal for the method of public discussion too. It should be led, he suggests by a "citizens' assembly" consisting of two representatives of each electorate randomly selected who would be paid to study the proposal, hold public meetings.

Recently, a member of the Republican Movement Bebo group commented:

For New Zealand to make the transition to a Republic It would require we first remove the Treaty of Waitangi as it is an agreement between the British crown and the Maori.

Another recent comment on Tumeke blog stated:

Moving to a republic would breach the first article of the treaty.

This is a common misconception in the republic debate. The Republican Movement has a page on the issue, and one of our principles is that any change to a republic would not affect the Treaty.

The Treaty itself states (in the first article English):

Tim Selwyn, the last New Zealander to be jailed for exciting disaffection towards Her Majesty, has put forward a comprehensive reform of New Zealand's constitutional make up, touching on Maori representation, MMP and republicanism. I won't comment on the first two parts, other than to say New Zealand's incremental approach of constitutional reform would preclude, I think, all three issues being addressed at once.

However, I do think Tim's model of the President of New Zealand / Tuamaki o Aotearoa is good:

Outgoing Speaker of the House of Representatives, Margaret Wilson, discussed republicanism on Agenda TV today. Here's the transcript:

BEVAN You’ve seen the change during your time of us doing away with the Privy Council, Steve Maharey raised the idea of a republic this week, do you think we'll see a republic in the medium term.

Professor Paul Moon, a respected New Zealand historian with several books to his name on the Treaty of Waitangi, discussed the Central North Island Treaty settlement this morning on TVNZ's Breakfast. There's no video online yet, but Professor Moon made an intriguing slip - he stated that the agreement was between the Maori and the Government, but quickly corrected himself by saying "the Crown and Maori".

The reality is that there's actual no difference between the two: "the Crown" is simply the legal embodiment of the Government's Executive. If Professor Moon had said "the Government as a legal entity and Maori" that would've been correct also.

The New Zealand Herald reports comments made by Tainui executive chairman Tukurangi Morgan at the Kingitanga (Maori King Movement)'s 150th anniversary celebrations:

Tainui executive chairman Tuku Morgan said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's support of moving towards a republic had prompted the Kingitanga to consider what a change, if it happened in this country, would mean for Maori.

If New Zealand decided to explore that option, Maori shouldn't be caught flat-footed, he said.

"For that reason we need to begin now to build a constitution that better reflects what we want and not be an afterthought if the country goes down that track.

"We want to drive this for Maori. The Kingitanga affords us that opportunity and we're going to put it to the motu (country) while they're here."