8 February 2022
New Zealand Republic has lodged a complaint with TV3 regarding a poll broadcast on Newshub on 7 February 2022 of an opinion poll asking:
“When Queen Elizabeth is no longer Queen, should New Zealand break away from the Commonwealth and become a republic?”
The opinion poll breached the broadcasting standards for free to air television, specifically standard 9, misleading. The issues of Commonwealth membership and New Zealand becoming a republic are separate issues.
“The poll’s phrasing does not clearly separate the issue of Commonwealth membership and transitioning to a republic, but the broadcast and subsequent web article presented the poll as if it represented support for the monarchy, making no mention of Commonwealth membership” said Lewis Holden, campaign chair of New Zealand Republic - Kia Mana Motuhake a Aotearoa.
“The poll implies that for New Zealand to transition to a republic, we must also leave the Commonwealth. This is misleading. Commonwealth members that become republics do not have to leave the organisation (as per the membership rules set down in 2007), and almost always do not. This fact is demonstrated by a report from Reuters published by Newshub on Barbados becoming a republic in 2021, reporting that Barbados would be a republic in the Commonwealth” added Mr Holden.
New Zealand Republic has commissioned its own opinion poll by polling firm Curia which demonstrates that New Zealand’s continued membership of the Commonwealth is material to support for a republic. The mention of Commonwealth in Newshub’s poll would clearly have had an impact on the poll result, which is therefore misleading as well.
We believe that this is likely to be a simple error based on a common misunderstanding of the Commonwealth being linked to the Royal family in some way. Newshub ought to therefore publish an addendum to the web article it has published that the poll is also recording support for the Commonwealth, and that New Zealand does not have leave the Commonwealth (and most likely won’t) due to the transition to a republic.
ENDS
Media contact: Lewis Holden, phone: 09 889 8426