Mai Chen: View from afar shows it's all working well

The Duchess of Cambridge's baby will be able to rule, whether it's a boy or a girl. Photo / AP

Opinion

Law changes on royal babies and gambling rules show success of the system we inherited from Britain

Years ago, I asked Sir David Carruthers, now head of the Independent Police Conduct Authority, what he now knew that he didn't know when he was my age. He said "There is no such thing as work-life balance, but those who love you learn to forgive you."

So it is school holidays and I am in St Petersburg because it is on my husband's bucket list. After 31 years together, he has learned to forgive me for working a lot of the time, and in return, I go where he wants on holidays and try not to work while there.

We are experiencing white nights as St Petersburg is so far north and it does not get dark until after midnight, and are able to maximise our days exploring one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The Church of Our Saviour on the Spilled Blood is still my favourite - all onion domes and ceramics and gold on the outside and amazing iconic mosaics and coloured marble floors on the inside. It is so named because Tsar Alexander II was blown up there by a former serf he freed, who was seeking better conditions.

It was used to store vegetables during the Soviet era and was spared only because World War II broke out and the explosives were needed elsewhere.

We fly to London today as my husband was born in the UK and his family migrated to New Zealand about the time mine emigrated from Taiwan. So I will be in the "other nationalities" queue at passport control with my New Zealand passport while the rest of the family rushes through flashing their British ones.

We will stay near 300-year-old Buckingham Palace, while at the other end of the world, the New Zealand Parliament's justice and electoral select committee is considering a bill to change the rules on succession to the throne, which has ramifications for the royal family's relationship with New Zealand, including its latest member, whose arrival is setting London and royalists world-wide abuzz.

The Royal Succession Bill comes from an agreement by the Commonwealth Heads of Government that it is past time the archaic rules on royal succession were brought into the 21st century.

The Bill itself is fairly technical - male-preference primogeniture will be abolished and if the Duchess of Cambridge has a baby girl, she will not be passed over in favour of any brothers she may have.

Marriage to a Catholic will no longer cost a member of the royal family their rights to the throne - although actual conversion to the Catholic faith remains a bridge too far. And descendants of King George II are finally able to lawfully marry without seeking the Queen's consent - unless they are one of the next six people in line for the throne.

Of course, the bill avoids the question about our constitutional monarchy, and whether we want to have one at all. Successive prime ministers have said a New Zealand republic is "inevitable". But opinion polls suggest most New Zealanders probably prefer monarchy to republic - at least for now.

This trend has remained fairly static over the past 10 years, with occasional upward spikes in favour of republicanism.

The royal family may be more popular now than ever. The restoration of knighthoods and queen's counsel by the current Government seemed to meet with acceptance, and no doubt the birth of the Duchess of Cambridge's baby will be met with the same excitement as her wedding to Prince William.

New Zealanders would expect that if we were to abandon the monarchy and establish a republic, we would need to have a referendum first.

Another contentious issue I am watching from afar is the introduction of the International Convention Centre Bill, which gives effect to the agreement between the Government and SkyCity to build a new convention centre. What is unusual in the bill is that it provides for "regulatory concessions" - the departures from New Zealand gambling law in the agreement with SkyCity - which have the force of law and prevail over the provisions of the Gambling Act.

The bill also provides that the compensation provisions in the agreement - which require the Crown to pay SkyCity compensation if the regulatory concessions are removed - are enforceable by SkyCity.

But the Government has not tried to entrench the legislation because it does not appear to have the numbers - particularly given that there is a conscience vote on the legislation.

So a future Parliament could legislate away any right to compensation.

The doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty we inherited from the United Kingdom remains alive and well in New Zealand.

Mai Chen is a partner in Chen Palmer and adjunct professor at the University of Auckland Business School.