For the centenary of Dominion in 2007, Republican Movement Chair Lewis Holden argued now is the time for New Zealand's politicians to show visionary leadership, as the country's parliament did a century before.

Anna Davidson was a member of the Youth Parliament in 1997 for Wellington Central MP Richard Prebble. Her speech to the gathering covers all of the essential issues for republicanism in the New Zealand context.

The Queen is still tops for the late Sir Edmund Hillary, writes Jonathan Milne in The Sunday Star Times.

As part of the debate on the succession law, former Republican Movement president Dave Guerin argues that the monarchy is an affront to New Zealand's Human Rights record.

Booker Prize-winner Tom Keneally, the former chair of the Australian Republican Movement, says New Zealand could beat Australia to a republic. "Some of these monarchists say that the Queen is above politics. You're not kidding. She's twelve thousand miles above politics. How interested is she in New Zealand?"

Jonathan Milne, August 1996

One might be forgiven, these days, for thinking that sovereignty is the ball in our national game. The Government admits that it was offside when it took possession in 1840, but it has the ball now and isn't letting go

Jonathan Milne, June 1996

Tucked away in one of the quieter of Wellington's hill suburbs, dressed in slippers and a dressing gown, lives a man who loves his country.

He loves it in a manner that is different from the nationalistic jingoism that is often taken for patriotism. He never fought wars for New Zealand. He never played rugby for New Zealand, or raced yachts.

Maurice Gee is a writer who has quietly introduced readers, from New Zealand and abroad alike, to many different facets of the country in which he has grown up.

It seems extraordinary that the person who brought New Zealand to so many -- a person who loves New Zealand in such a way -- is also a person unable to swear an Oath of Allegiance to New Zealand's head of state.

James K Baxter, May 1963

Michael Laws, March 1995

The case for an independent republic of New Zealand is summed up in one word --nationhood. It is a statement to the world and ourselves that New Zealand is a mature nation, that we possess a constitutional framework that best suits New Zealanders.

Perhaps the most appropriate analogy is that of a child. As a child grows up, survives gawky adolescence and develops their own personal sense of identity they leave home to create a life of their own. At that point they possess the skills, the experience and the maturity to chart their own independent destiny. On a constitutional level New Zealand has reached that stage. We are ready for adulthood.

To retain our present adherence to the Crown is to admit insecurity and instability; that New Zealand is uncertain of itself and lacks the necessary fabric to chart its own future.

World Trade Organisation director-general and former Labour prime minister Mike Moore says the directive for New Zealand to become a republic must come from the people, not the government. "Any changes could last for a hell of a long time -- we can't change just because people are pissed off with the current situation."