Curran calls for republic debate

Clare Curran
Clare Curran
Dunedin South Labour MP Clare Curran wants debate to start on whether the time has come to sever constitutional ties with Great Britain, and for planning to begin for New Zealand to become a republic.

Ms Curran took to the streets of Wellington on Monday, protesting alongside Green MP Keith Locke and other republicans during Prince William's visit to the city. 

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Her protest was made as an individual, she said yesterday, but was also part of her role as a politician.

Ms Curran was one of what she estimated to be "a couple of dozen" protesters among those lining Wellington streets to get a glimpse of the prince, as he performed his first official duty for the Queen, opening the Supreme Court.

The republican movement in New Zealand had a long way to go, Ms Curran said, but she hoped the discussion, at least, could begin.

"I wanted to stand alongside the Republican Movement of Aotearoa," she said.

"It's my role as a politician to stand up for what I believe."Mr Locke has introduced a member's Bill, the Head of State Referenda Bill, which he hopes will spark a national debate on New Zealand's constitutional future.

The Bill provides for a two-stage referendum on whether New Zealand should retain a monarch as head of state, or move to one of two options - a directly-elected head of state or one approved by 75% of Parliament.

But Ms Curran's decision to take part in the protest was questioned by a Mosgiel reader of the Otago Daily Times, Richard Bennett.

Mr Bennett asked in a letter to the editor whether Ms Curran had Labour Party approval, and whether she polled her constituents on the matter.

She responded yesterday, saying the party had been debating Mr Locke's Bill, and leader Phil Goff had expressed the view New Zealand would one day become a republic.

She had always made her support of the republican cause clear, and she was "very strongly in favour".

"There's no hiding my views on it. It's not like it's new.

"I thought very carefully about it [attending the protest]. The decision was one of conscience, and had been signalled in her blog on the Labour Party's Red Alert website.

"I have nothing against him [Prince William], or the Royal Family generally," she said on the site.

"But I'm a republican. Our future lies in independence, standing on our own two feet as a nation. We are approaching that point, I believe.

"There is a better way to govern ourselves than borrowing a prince from Britain to open our Supreme Court."

david.loughrey@odt.co.nz

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