30 April

Prime Minister Helen Clark’s further comments on New Zealand becoming a republic are reported from NZPA (“Clark flirts with plan for a Kiwi republic”). Ms Clark was visiting England during which time she called on Tony Blair but not New Zealand’s head of state, the Queen. Talking about national identity, she suggested it would soon be time to tackle New Zealand’s direction as a country. “We have inherited a set of rather quaint arrangements,” she said referring to ties with British royalty. It’s just so easy for life to go on and not confront them.” NZ is now in the process of removing knighthoods and damehoods and shedding the Privy Council in Britain as the final court of appeal (these things are long gone in Australia). The visit was also reported in The Guardian (UK) where Ms Clark indicated that if Australia got its act together and removed the English monarch as its head of state, then she could not imagine New Zealand lagging far behind.