Kiwis Say No to Ditching the Royals On Tv3’s the Vote

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Wednesday 17 July, 2013

Kiwis Say No to Ditching the Royals On Tv3’s the Vote

Once in a generation, a new sovereign is born, but will William and Kate’s child ever rule over New Zealand?  

Kiwi interest in the monarchy is at a high, as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – William and Kate – prepare for the birth of a daughter or son destined to one day be our Queen or King.  But by the time this baby comes of age, New Zealand may have abandoned ‘The Firm’ in favour of a home-grown Head of State.

Tonight Kiwis voted NO to the moot ‘Let’s ditch the royals’ during national debate programme The Vote, which screened on TV3.  

Duncan Garner and the Negative team were declared the winners of the debate at the end of the hour-long show with the votes tallied at 41% YES, 59% NO.

Viewers voted from around the country and overseas. During the broadcast #thevotenz trended at #1 in New Zealand on Twitter. 

Viewer votes:

Dubbed ‘competitive current affairs’, The Vote sees co-hosts Duncan Garner and Guyon Espiner each month lead two teams to debate a hot topic, with Linda Clark keeping order as referee.

Tonight Guyon led a team arguing we should ditch the royals.  He was joined by property investor and former politician Sir Bob Jones; MP and spokesperson for Maori Affairs, Regional Development and Forestry, Shane Jones; and Green Party advisor and former Alliance MP and Cabinet Minister, Laila Harre.

Duncan Garner headed a team arguing we should keep the monarchy, with MP and former Monarchy New Zealand chair, Simon O’Connor; editor of the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly Louise Wright, and Mayor of Caterton and former MP, Ron Mark.

The debate saw Sir Bob Jones, who argued for the Affirmative team, refused to sign his name to a letter to the Governor General rescinding his Knighthood, and the results of a Facebook poll held during the debate revealed that 61% would change the New Zealand flag.

The arguments FOR:

• This debate isn’t about how we feel about the royals, or any particular royal, it’s about how we feel about ourselves as New Zealanders. – Laila Harre
• I don’t think anyone’s saying that we’re not independent but there is no question that having as our head of state somebody who lives across the other side of the world, who in sixty years in that position has been in New Zealand for twenty weeks, I think, is really pressing the concept of our nationhood. – Laila Harre
• The evolution of our country is that common laws are part of what makes us New Zealanders, any group, any hapu, any iwi, any group of kiwis are going to be able to rely on the inherent jurisdiction that flows from common law in the High Court. We don’t need a monarch in England to retain that essential element of our democracy in New Zealand. – Shane Jones
• New Zealand is not going to flourish on the back of fossilised connections. Sure, we love the queen as a revered figure, but secondly that is soon going to change. … The spirit lies with the young people. Trust it. They want evolution, they want progression. They don’t want their head of state represented through a hereditary and a discriminatory appointment. – Shane Jones
• Look I don’t want to be unkind. I don’t want to be rude. I’ll just be factual. Most of them are quite stupid. We don’t want the Queen’s judgment because she’s not exactly Einstein. Or are any of the rest of them.  - Bob Jones

The arguments AGAINST:

• If you start voting for your head of state then you’ve got winners and losers. The strength of New Zealand’s democracy is the woman that holds the power on the part of all New Zealand is not political. – Simon O’Connor
• The Queen is more popular than she has ever been in New Zealand, she is. I see sales figures every week. She is going through the stratosphere. – Louise Wright
• [The Queen] has a really, really deep affection for New Zealand as does her family. Her son went to school here; Prince William was here to see Pike River, to see Christchurch after the earthquake. They have a deep abiding affection for New Zealand and they take their responsibilities for New Zealand very seriously. – Louise Wright
• If you look at republics internationally, I think rudderless republics have become renowned for their hallmarks which are corruption, political interference, chaos, anarchy and civil war. – Ron Mark
• We’ve had 150 years of stable democracy and now you’re saying maybe we’ll just change it a few names and everything will be ok. It might be an executive appointment, it might be the people of New Zealand, it might be ceremonial, oh but we’ll work it out. What you’re asking is a blank cheque, you’re asking for a blank cheque for a New Zealand republic. – Simon O’Connor
• Look at the risk to the relationship which is between Maori and the Crown, Maori and Parliament. We have gone through 20 years of Treaty settlements, of working with Maori, of Maori working with non-Maori, working with Parliament to get to a stage now where the Treaty’s place is pretty well-defined and understood where the public have generally accepted that the Treaty settlement process must continue to conclusion. – Ron Mark

The Vote is produced by TV3’s News and Current Affairs division with funding from NZ On Air, and screens once every four weeks in the same timeslot as 3rd Degree.

ENDS

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