NZHerald:
"The question would be something along the lines of "should New Zealand become a Republic within the Commonwealth with an elected President as head of state?"
He said Ireland provided a good model, with a parliamentary system and an elected president as head of state.
"The elected president does not exercise any executive functions and is obliged to act on the advice of his or her ministers, in pretty much the same way as our Governor-General does now."
That is very misleading from Dunne. There are times when a Governor General must interpret the constitutional legislation and act accordingly and independent of advice from ministers. Formation of a government is potentially one of those times.
So that is the responsibility of the office.
The problem with creating an office for a President is the risk that office will get more power. I think I prefer a council of ministers and a deposable prime minister that can be dismissed by parliament.
So that would mean the new office is called something other than president. Any one want to try? ; ).
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