New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that her government will not be pursuing any moves toward changing New Zealand to a republic following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Ardern admitted she thought New Zealand would eventually become a republic, and it would probably happen within her lifetime, but that there were more pressing issues for her government to contend with. Under the current system, the British monarch remains New Zealand’s head of state, represented in New Zealand by a governor-general.
The debate as to whether New Zealand should fully step out from the shadows of its colonialist past and become a republic has ebbed and flowed over the last few decades. ‘There’s been a debate, probably for a number of years,’ Ardern said. ‘It’s just the pace, and how widely that debate is occurring. I’ve made my view plain many times. I do believe that is where New Zealand will head, in time.
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