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Download AudioA constitutional law expert is picking a swing towards republicanism in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The United Kingdom and the Commonwealth have marked 75 years of Queen Elizabeth on the throne, although the 97-year-old monarch did not attend many of the ceremonies.
University of Auckland law professor Janet McLean doesn’t expect the same support for Prince Charles once he succeeds his mother, but moving to a republic won’t be easy.
There would be major questions to address about the status of the Treaty of Waitangi and whether separate consent from Māori is needed, perhaps through a referendum.
It’s likely it will be a similar process to the introduction of MMP.
So there would probably need to be some task force to get up some options that would be put up to the people and they would choose which of the alternatives to the monarchy they might want and then there would probably be a second referendum where the most popular option would be compared with the status quo, so you would have to do it in two chunks,” Professor McLean says.
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