New Zealand Republic - Kia Mana Motuhake a Aotearoa is an incorporated society with an executive that makes day-to-day decisions. Campaign spokespersons’ profiles and details are below:
Savage - Campaign Chair
Savage was one of the co-founders of the New Zealand Republic campaign in 1994.
He wants a country where all New Zealanders are empowered to participate fully in democratic decision-making. He is committed to improving the standard of public debate and to ensuring a political system based on fairness and transparency. He has dual UK/NZ citizenship. He has only one name.
Phone: 027 590 0074
Email: chair@republic.org.nz
Lewis Holden - Treasurer
Lewis Holden is the Treasurer of New Zealand Republic and the author of The New Zealand Republic Handbook. Lewis supports a New Zealand head of state because he is passionate about Aotearoa New Zealand, and believes it is time we asserted our unique identity. He lives in Auckland and works in the IT industry.
Email: treasurer@republic.org.nz
Dean Knight - Constitutional Advisor
Dean is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Associate Director of the New Zealand Centre for Public Law at Victoria University of Wellington. He is passionate about ensuring that our public offices, institutions and civic identity reflect the New Zealand nation we live it - Kiwiness matters and that's why we need to have our own home-grown and independent Head of State.
Dean also teaches and publishes on constitutional matters, including the monarchy and Head of State; his primary role in the campaign is advising on constitutional matters and the blue-print for change.
Email: dean.knight@vuw.ac.nz
Peter Hamilton
Peter is a former Deputy-Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was New Zealand’s Ambassador to Germany and High Commissioner to Singapore and Samoa.
Phone: 021 039 6019
Todd Nicholls
Todd Nicholls is from Lincoln, Canterbury, is proud to be a new member of the Executive.
Todd, a criminal barrister, wrote his MA thesis on the reasons for the lack of Republican sentiment in New Zealand.
As well as an MA in Political Science, Todd has a BA in Political Science and English, an LLM (First Class Honours) and a Diploma in Journalism.
Todd strongly believes that New Zealand’s move to become a Republic is part of the country’s constitutional evolution. Like Geoffrey Palmer and Andrew Butler, Todd’s view is that there needs to be a public debate about whether New Zealand becomes a Republic and, if so, what it should look like.
As well as enjoying spending time with his three children, Todd enjoys writing books, spending time at the beach and watching rugby union, Test cricket, tennis and golf. His musical heroes include Neil and Tim Finn, Dave Dobbyn and Bic Runga.