How does this compare to what we have?

New Zealand is what is known as a “constitutional monarchy” because our head of state is an hereditary monarch, whose powers are limited by law and convention. Today in New Zealand, the monarch plays an extremely small part of how New Zealand is governed.

Although we don't pay the King money, he is a volunteer, we do pay for the Governor General, around $11 million a year. And we pay for Royalty whenever they visit which costs in the millions.

Pros and Cons

Here's some points people have raised as positives and negatives. They have been put in no particular order.

• It could cost a lot to change our system, setting up a President, voting for the change- estimates minimum at around $10 million

• The Treaty we have is signed between The Crown and Māori. If we are separating from The Crown, does this make it useless? This means we may need a whole new agreement/constitution or alter it and that would take a lot of time and debate

• How do Māori fit into this? Colonisation put Māori at a disadvantage right from the start and caused a lot of harm. In a new republic we would have to incorporate a larger Māori voice to do things better than we did in the past and what does that look like? Again that is a lot of time and money, but could be beneficial in moving forward.

• The Monarchy represents all the negatives of colonisation

How a debate works

Debates are usually structured in a very set way to allow each group to be heard. This means each group has a chance to speak and the other group CANNOT interrupt!

The debate structure goes like this:

1. Government gives their opening statement

2. Opposition give their opening statement

3. Government has a chance to respond to things the opposition raised (this is known as a rebuttal: arguing things in a formal way)

4. Opposition has a chance to make a rebuttal.

Optional: at this point the speaker will introduce a twist! Both groups will have 5 minutes to review the twist and decide how they will argue their position. 

5. The reporters will deliberate and decide as a group which side made the best argument. A representative from the reporters will announce the winner to the house.