It has been 5 years since the last New Zealand appeal to the Privy Council was decided on 3 March 2015, and 20 years since the third attempt to abolish appears to the Privy Council was kicked off by then Attorney-General Margaret Wilson. I was reminded last week by John Campbell before appearing on TVNZ Breakfast of how quickly we’d forgotten this debate and the tumult over how it would all work, the uncertainty of change and the reaction to it. It is, in a way, a sign of how the head of state debate will go, and probably be remembered.

The debate has largely been forgotten because the nature of our appeals process has little relevance to people’s day to day lives, and the creation of the Supreme Court has been a success. None of the increasingly ridiculous claims about the Supreme Court have come to pass, and despite the expense of a new building for the court in Wellington, access to justice has greatly improved.

No Commonwealth country that has abolished appeals to the Privy Council has gone back to the body. It is unimaginable that New Zealand would do so. But remembering and learning from the debate in the early 2000s is of great importance to the head of state debate today.