King Charles III may be set to lose yet another sovereign state under his rule – New Zealand – as Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said on May 1 that he favours his country becoming a republic. He, however, added that he does not intend for change right away.
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Hours before leaving for London to attend King Charles III’s coronation, Mr. Hipkins told reporters, “Ideally, in time, New Zealand will become a fully independent country, will stand on our own two feet in the world, as we, by and large, do now”.
“I don’t think that swapping out the governor-general for some other form of head of state is necessarily an urgent priority right now, though,” he added.
New Zealand is a self-governing former British colony. However, Charles retains a largely ceremonial role as head of state and king and is represented in New Zealand by a governor-general. Like other former colonies, the debate over the constitutional role of the British monarchy in modern times is rife in New Zealand.
Apart from New Zealand, King Charles III is the monarch and head of state for fourteen sovereign countries, collectively known as the Commonwealth realms — Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and the United Kingdom (UK).
In 2021, Barbados removed the then-Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state, becoming the newest republic in the world. It was the first to cut ties from the British monarchy since 1992, when Mauritius became a republic.
As head of state, the King is represented by a Governor-General in these countries. In the name of the monarch, the Governor-General opens and dissolves parliament, commissions the Prime Minister, appoints other ministers after elections, gives assent to laws passed by Parliament and performs ceremonial duties as Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces, such as attending parades.
File photo: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II poses for a group photograph with Commonwealth leaders in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, on November 27, 2009 Photo Credit: AP
Situated in the West Indies, at the juncture of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, Antigua was colonized by the British in 1632 while Barbuda was colonized in 1678, primarily for slavery. The islands were decolonized in 1956 and joined the West Indies Federation. Antigua became self-governing in 1967, remaining dependent on the UK for external affairs and defence.
Amid calls for Independence in the 1970s in Antigua, Barbuda demanded secession from the larger island, voicing concerns about a stifled economy. However, autonomy talks were successful, and Antigua and Barbuda achieved independence on November 1, 1981. Shortly after, the country officially joined the United Nations and the Commonwealth —retaining the British monarch as its head of state.
On September 22, 2022, Reuters reported that the nation plans to hold a referendum about becoming a republic within the next three years. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the country confirmed Charles III as its King, but Prime Minister Gaston Browne expressed a wish to ‘complete the circle of independence’ and become a republic.
File photo: Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, speaks at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, on November 8, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
