Monarchy of The Cook Islands - Queen's Representative and Governor-General

Queen's Representative and Governor-General

The Cook Islands shares the Sovereign with a number of Commonwealth realms. The Queen's constitutional roles have been almost entirely delegated to the Queen's Representative.

Originally the vice-regal was titled as High Commissioner and was appointed by the Governor-General of New Zealand on the recommendation of the Minister of the Government of New Zealand who was deemed responsible for matters relating to the Cook Islands, and after consultation with the Premier of the Cook Islands. In the early 1980s, the Cook Island Constitution was amended so that the words "Queen's Representative" were substituted for the word "High Commissioner," and the words "Prime Minister" were substituted for the word "Premier." Further, the 1981 Constitution Amendment decreed that the Queen's representative was appointed directly by the Queen herself; not the Governor-General of New Zealand. The text states that " shall be a representative of Her Majesty the Queen in the Cook Islands, to be known as the Queen's Representative by Her Majesty the Queen..."

Article 5 of the Constitution states that the Queen's Representative is to act on the advice of her Cook Islands Ministers: "The Queen's Representative in the performance of his functions as the representative of Her Majesty the Queen shall act on the advice of Cabinet, the Prime Minister, or the appropriate Minister as the case may be..."

Over the Realm of New Zealand, the Letters Patent established the office of the Governor-General, and provide that the Governor-General is " representative in Realm of New Zealand" who may exercise his or her powers and authorities "without prejudice to the office, powers, or authorities of any other person who has been or may be appointed to represent in any part of Realm of New Zealand and to exercise powers and authorities on behalf." However, the relationship between the Governor-General of New Zealand and the Queen's Representative is quite different. Under the Cook Islands' Constitution, executive power is "vested in Her Majesty the Queen in right of New Zealand... the executive authority of the Cook Islands may be exercised on behalf of Her Majesty by the Queen's Representative either directly or through officers subordinate to him. This leaves the Governor-General with only an indirect constitutional role in the form of the defence and external affairs prerogatives, arising from the Governor-General's constitutional position in terms of the Realm as a whole. Any vice-regal powers and responsibilities in the Cook Islands are vested in the Queen's Representative, leaving the Governor-General with no substantive role in relation to the territory.

As a result, the current relationship of the Monarchy to the Cook Islands is effectively identical to that of any independent Commonwealth Realm, even though the Queen is still nominally head of state "in right of New Zealand".