Finding separation of church and state for New Zealand

(d) no person shall assert any religious belief as a legal reason to disregard this Constitution or any other law.

The Methodist Church of Fiji opposed separation, wanting Fiji to identify as a Christian nation. However, very importantly, both the Church of England and the Catholic Church in Fiji have embraced separation. They seem to have taken Professor Ghai's point that separation of church and state is not 'anti-religion, but just a feeling that the function and responsibility of religion or beliefs within societies should be separated from the functions and policies of the institution of the State.'

The conclusion we could reach from this example is that genuine constitutional separation of church and state may not be possible in the constitutional monarchies of Canada and New Zealand. The republican-style s.116 in the Australian Constitution of Australia's constitutional monarchy is yet to be properly tested. It seems likely however that separation would be more easily achieved if the three nations were republics.

Genuine separation occurs in three possible ways:

Separation is written into a constitution (Fiji)

A constitution implies separation and is interpreted that way by the highest court (US)

Separation is legislated by a parliament (France)

It is widely believed that because a nation does not have an 'established' church - an official, legislated religion of the state (England), or officially promotes a particular religion, there is separation of church and state. But this mistakes partial,conventional separation for complete constitutional separation. Lack of an established church means only what it says: that there is no established church. By itself, it does not guarantee constitutional separation as detailed above.

By conventional separation we mean the notion that because churches do not participate in parliamentary lawmaking it follows there must be separation. This is simplistic because the Australian and New Zealand governments

· Openly support the private beliefs of the religious with the use of public money via tax exemptions and donations for religious activities

· Allow exemptions and exceptions to law that do not apply to others

· Bow to the influence of religion concerning, for example, a woman's right to choose and voluntary euthanasia