Support for a New Zealand head of state remains high after April's royal visit.
In March, just prior to the visit, a poll of eligible voters had support for a Kiwi head of state at 44%. Support for the next British Monarch was at 46%. 10% were undecided. The same poll taken in June 2014 shows support is still at 44% with a 3% swing toward a royal head of state. There was corresponding 3% decrease in undecided voters.
The latest poll was carried out by Curia Research between 16 June and July 1st. It surveyed 1026 eligible voters and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%. The March poll surveyed 1038 eligible voters and had the same margin of error.
The head of state campaign leader, Savage, is pleased with the result, "Royal tours get a lot of publicity but long-term we don't think they change peoples' opinions very much. There was a massive amount of hype around this last royal visit but support for a New Zealand head of state remains very strong."
"After the last royal visit we expected a small swing toward a royal head of state so we're confident our campaign is on the right track and that our blueprint for change is a good solution to the debate."
"Royalists threw everything into this visit. They bought in their A-list royals and spent millions of dollars promoting them. We decided to conserve our funds and ride it out."
"A similar shift in the polls happened after the Charles and Camilla tour in 2012. As the hype dies away voters return to looking at the detail and thinking about the advantages of choosing a New Zealander. The head of state debate is not about personal popularity."
"Support for a British head of state is still lower than two years but we'll be waiting until next time this question is polled to judge the long-term trend."
Extra spending uncovered
"Our monitoring has so far uncovered an extra $700 000 of spending on the royal visit in excess of the 1 million already announced. We expect the final bill for the royal visit to be over $2 million. That equates to about 5 years travel costs for the Governor-General. Spending $200 000 a day on royal publicity tours is not going to deliver a better head of state. Far better to spend it on the person who is actually doing all the work."
"It is inevitable that New Zealand will one day have its own head of State. New Zealand Republic wants to make sure that the office of Head of State serve the needs of all New Zealanders and not just royalists."