Peter Hamilton: former MFAT deputy secretary on King Charles bypassing New Zealand in international tour

Republic NZ’s Peter Hamilton has long believed New Zealand is ready to have a Kiwi as the head of state.

King Charles is set to leave Australia and head to the 27th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa - bypassing New Zealand in his first tour since taking the throne.

Hamilton says it makes more sense for New Zealand's head of state to live among New Zealanders. 

"The whole business of having a foreigner as our head of state - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and a few other countries - it's just overloading the system and the British monarch can't take the role that's required in this modern day and age."  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here the duplessy out.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Today is the last day of the King and Queen's
visit to Australia. They're going to head straight to some
war once they've wrapped it up for the Commonwealth heads
of government meeting over there, and they're not going to
be stopping in New Zealand on the way. Former in
fact Deputy Secretary Peter Hamilton has long argued that we
are actually ready in this country to have our own
head of state and he's with us.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Hey, Peter, how are you? I'm very well, thank you.
I reckon that Charles, bypassing our strengthens your argument. What
do you think, Well, in a way it does.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
I don't you know, I don't forget the fact that
he's sick and unable to travel. He's only making a
short visit to Australia, not a full state visit. It's
like a transit stop and he's doing some R and
r here on the way to some more So I
wasn't surprised that he's not coming to New Zealand. But
what it does show basically is the whole business of
having a foreigner as our head of state in Australia, Canada,

(00:51):
New Zealand a few other countries. It's just overloading the
system and the British monarch can't undertake the role that's
required in this modern day and age of being a
head of state for New Zealand. In New Zealand and
you know, we've got the Governor General there, Dame Cindy Kurry,
doing all the work but getting very little of the
recognition for what she does.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Do we actually miss out on anything though, having Cindy
there instead of Charles.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Well put it this way, I think Cindy misses out
in one sense because she's not getting the recognition internationally
that she should have as New Zealand's are duly appointed
head of state. She does everything fine in terms of
the ceremonial role in New Zealand, and we're talking about
keeping it as the ceremonial non executive role. But New

(01:39):
Zealand is hampered when the Governor General goes overseas because
of course nobody quite understands any longer what the heck
a governor does or a governor general does. You know
that sounds like some sort of colonial thing, really doesn't it.
And you know then they say, well, who is your
head of state? And we say, well, it's actually the
British monarch, and at that point people's eyes sort of

(02:02):
gloss over and they sort of wonder why that's the case.
What it's historical in our situation. But it is time
in the twenty first century to bring the whole role
back to New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
I think, Peter, why is it that at the moment
this is falling on deaf is there just doesn't seem
to be much of an appetite to discuss this kind
of stuff, both here in New Zealand and over in Australia.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah. One thing, of course, is that there's plenty else
going on at the moment, and who gets really excited
about constitutional issues. It's just not very sexy at all
at any stage of the game. But I think the
point is that there's confusion too about what the issues are.
If you ask New Zealanders, should a New Zealander be
our head of state or could a New Zealander take

(02:45):
on the role as the head of state? No, New
Zealand is going to say, oh no, no, we're incapable
of doing that. Everybody agrees we are capable of doing it.
But then the sort of confusion is about what the
role actually entails and what not having the British king
as our head of state would mean too. Some people say, oh, well,
I don't want to leave the Commonwealth. We like the
Commonwealth Games. Well, that's not the point. We aren't going

(03:06):
to leave the Commonwealth. We can go to the Commonwealth Games,
even as the Republic and most countries in this day
and age are republics now in the Commonwealth, of the
fifty four Commonwealth countries, only thirteen of them have the
British monarchs as head of state. Most of them are republics.
So I think it's time to have the conversation. But

(03:26):
there is confusion and understanding too about what this actually means.
If you ask New Zealanders. We did a few years ago,
we did a survey asking New Zealanders who is our
head of state? And would you believe it? Eighty percent
didn't know. Only twenty percent got it right. Most people
thought it was the Prime Minister, the Governor General didn't
really know, and so they didn't really have much much

(03:50):
clue about who actually is is our head of state.
So it's a bit of a confusion there.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, Peter, I think that the behavior from Lydia Thorpe
in the last few days actually harms the rep Publican
movement simply because while you might be sympathetic towards republicanism,
who wants to be associated with that kind of outlandish
and rude behavior.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Absolutely absolutely agree with you. Look, she might have had
her own particular viewpoint. Everybody has and is entitled to
their own viewpoints. But in this discussion of replacing the
British monarchers at our head of state, we're not in
any way seeking to denigrate or downplay or attack the
British monarchy or the royal family. That's just not it.

(04:32):
We need a calm, measured, rational and polite conversation about
the issues that Charles has said publicly, if Australia New
Zealand want to become republics, he won't stand in the
way of it. And as John Luck, as Christopher Luxon
said yesterday, he's a soft Republican. But when he was

(04:52):
asked what does King Charles actually do for New Zealand,
you know what his answer was. He said, he's dedicated.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, it's so dedicated it doesn't even visit us exactly.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
And there's nobody more dedicated in this whole equation than
our governor's general like Simdiciro at the moment.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Hey, Peter, thanks for talking us through to really appreciate
it is Peter Hamilton, former m FAT Deputy secretary and diplomat.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
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