Australia-New Zealand relations
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The Relationship between Australia and New Zealand is somewhat similar to that of other small countries with their much larger or more influential neighbour, such as Canada and the United States, Pakistan and India or Ireland with Britain.
Some have defined the Australia-New Zealand relationship as less one of friendship than of brotherhood. Relations between the two countries have worsened at times over relatively minor matters, such as sporting competitions involving rugby or cricket (for instance, the underarm delivery incident[1]), or commerce between the two countries. One example of this was Australia's anger over the Air New Zealand/Ansett Airlines fiasco, a reaction that was sharper than could be easily explained by the mere facts.
Despite this, relations between Australia and New Zealand are exceptionally close on both the national and interpersonal scales. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore declared that Australians and New Zealanders have more in common than New Yorkers and Californians. Relations are especially close given the number of tourists that travel between the two countries and the (generally) common economics policy.
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[edit] Cultural and Historical Attributes
The modern nations of Australia and New Zealand are descended from British settler colonies established in the Australasian region in the 18th and 19th centuries. While the colonies of the Australian mainland and Tasmania were federated together in 1901 as the Commonwealth of Australia, the more isolated colony of New Zealand developed into a separate dominion and eventually an independent country of its own.
While New Zealand chose not to join the Australian federation in 1901, it maintains close political contact. At a government-to-government level, the relationship that Australia has with New Zealand is better developed and more extensive than with any other country. Prime Ministers hold annual formal talks, as do Treasurers, Trade and Defence Ministers. Foreign Ministers meet biannually. Ministers and public servants from both countries participate in meetings and conferences on a wide range of issues: health, education, transport, justice, quarantine and many others. New Zealand ministers and senior officials participate, with their Australian federal and state counterparts, in many of the ministerial council meetings which span the Australian domestic policy agenda.
[edit] Similarities
Australia and New Zealand are both prosperous western democracies, and constitutional monarchies situated in the Oceania region. They are characterised by political stability, relatively high incomes, egalitarian cultures, and a long tradition of representative democracy. Both cultures have high rates of home ownership and value leisure time, especially sports and other outdoor pursuits. Although traditionally dominated by an Anglo-Celtic culture, both countries have become increasingly multi-cultural in the latter decades of the 20th century.
[edit] Differences
[edit] Historical differences
Most of the colonies that later became Australia were set up as convict settlements, whilst New Zealand was settled by free settlers. The white Australian population from early times contained a large Irish Catholic component, hostile to the British overclass, in comparison to New Zealand which was settled by English, loyal to the British crown, with large minorities of Irish and Scots. This resulted in some significant differences in attitude to authority. New Zealand never had an equivalent to the Eureka Stockade revolt, and never developed a serious Republican movement.
Perhaps the most radically different experience of the two countries in colonial times was their respective treatment of indigenous peoples. While Australia was claimed for the British crown by right of discovery and conquest, New Zealand joined the British Empire through the Treaty of Waitangi signed between the British Crown and Māori chiefs. This gave the New Zealand Māori population certain rights not enjoyed by the Australian Aboriginal population at that time, including the vote, legal equality, and property qualifications. While Māori have at times been seen as an underclass (and still suffer economic disadvantages), their position in New Zealand society was more advanced than that of Australia's aboriginies and Torres Strait Islanders.
[edit] Contemporary differences
After the Second World War both countries looked to the United States for security, rather than the United Kingdom. Australia has however maintained a much closer relationship with the United States, especially in recent years, after New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy lead to rifts in its relationship with the United States, and the eventual breakdown of the ANZUS alliance. Australia sees New Zealand as something of a freeloader in terms of defence, whilst New Zealand in contrast resents the self-appointed Australian role of being the United States' puppet for the region.
Australia in modern times has come to see itself as tied to the fortunes of Asia, whilst New Zealand has defined itself in contrast as a Pacific nation. This has led to radically different perspectives on various issues, including migration, trade, and the relationship with the United States[citation needed].
[edit] Views and Stereotypes
[edit] Australian views of New Zealand
Australians tend to look upon New Zealand as a quainter, more provincial version of Australia. Stereotypes focus on New Zealand as a pastoral land lacking in sophistication and without the modern cosmopolitan nature of contemporary Australia. On the other hand Australians concede that New Zealand retains some aspects of an innocent golden age that Australia has lost, with its quiet lifestyle, lack of drugs and serious crime, and polite conduct. A comparison could be drawn with American views of Canada.
[edit] New Zealand views of Australia
New Zealanders see Australia as a larger, brasher and more obnoxious version of their society. While conceding that Australia is bigger and wealthier, few New Zealanders will readily admit to Australia being necessarily superior. New Zealanders point to the level of government and media corruption in their nearest neighbour (New Zealand outscores Australia in both the Corruption Perception Index and the Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index), the higher level of crime, drug use, and social problems, and the treatment of indigenous people as inferior to their own society. A comparison could be drawn with Canadian views of the United States.
New Zealanders regard Australians as loud and opinionated, while Australians ridicule New Zealanders as 'South Seas Poms' for their supposedly closer relationship with 'Mother England', yet underneath the name-calling and the petty grievances, in case of need New Zealanders and Australians have defended one another, epitomised by the ANZAC tradition.
Some of the banter between the two countries is typified by the response by the former New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon when questioned about increased levels of emigration to Australia, that these migrants "raised the average IQ of both countries".
[edit] Relationships
[edit] Intra Migration
In recent decades, many New Zealanders have migrated to Australia, particularly to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. Unlike citizens of other countries, New Zealand passport holders are issued with ‘special category’ visas on arrival in Australia, which allow them to live and work there. Although officially reciprocal, the traffic is to a large extent in one direction only; fewer Australians choose to live and work in New Zealand.
Consequently, ‘Kiwis’ in Australia are accused of taking local jobs or living on Australian social welfare benefits, although since 2001, New Zealanders must now wait two years before they are eligible for such payments. However, there are complaints in New Zealand that Australia is poaching the country's best and brightest, with police forces, schools and hospitals in Australia headhunting or recruiting aggressively across the Tasman.
Many only realise how much the two nationalities have in common when they go to Europe to work and travel, although some New Zealanders are almost horrified at the idea that they have anything in common with Australians. When groups of young Kiwis and Aussies congregate together in European camping grounds, etc, it can be difficult to say which are which.
Unlike Canadians and Americans, who share a land border that they can cross without passports (until 2007), the geographical separation between New Zealand and Australia means that many have never visited the other's country. Many of them are more likely to have visited Europe, and this is especially true of Australians. When the Australian actress Cate Blanchett told US talkshow host David Letterman that her time on location in New Zealand filming The Lord of the Rings was her first visit to the country, he was genuinely surprised, while she was equally puzzled by his reaction.
Perhaps on a map of the world the two countries look close together. However the closest points of the "mainlands" are more than 1,600km (1000 miles) apart, comparable with the distance from England to Africa. A typical flight between the two countries takes around three hours.
[edit] Trading Links
New Zealand’s economic ties with Australia are strong, especially since the demise of Britain as a trading partner following its decision to join the then European Economic Community in 1973, and in the 1980s, the two countries concluded the Closer Economic Relations agreement, allowing each country access to the others markets.
[edit] Political Union
Indeed the 1901 Australian Constitution included provisions to allow New Zealand to join Australia as its seventh state, even after the government of New Zealand had already decided against such a move. Section 6 of the Preamble declares that:
‘The States’ shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such colonies or territories as may be admitted into or established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called ‘a State’.
One of the reasons that New Zealand chose not to join Australia was due to perceptions that the indigenous Māori population would suffer as a result. Federation age Australia had a strict White Australia policy and indigenous Aboriginal peoples were not granted citizenship and the vote as early as the Māori in New Zealand, who had full citizenship, and universal suffrage since 1893.
From time to time the idea of joining Australia has been mooted, but opinion polls show New Zealanders overwhelmingly against. Even New Zealanders resident in Australia have been unenthusiastic, while for its part, the Australian government has expressed little or no interest, Until just recently when Australia came to suggest it again. Both countries have contributed to the sporadic discussion on a Pacific Union, although that proposal would include a much wider range of member-states than just Australia and New Zealand.
While there is no prospect of political union now, there is still a great deal of similarity between the two cultures, with the differences often only obvious to Australians and New Zealanders themselves.
[edit] Relationships with the United Kingdom
Like Australians, New Zealanders have a 'love-hate' relationship with the UK, although anti-English sentiment is not as strong, and republicanism is not yet as emotive an issue as it is in Australia. While the UK, especially London, is the first port of call on the 'OE' or 'Overseas Experience' for most young Kiwis, they can often be dismissive of the so-called 'Mother Country', deriding ‘Poms’ as snobbish, inflexible, and backward-looking. New Zealanders felt badly about the UK's entry into the Common Market in 1973, which deprived them of their main trading partner, and often feel affronted at being treated as 'Others' by British immigration at Heathrow.
[edit] References
- ^ Swanton, Will. "25 years along, Kiwi bat sees funnier side of it", Cricket, The Age, 2006-01-23. Retrieved on 2006-06-27.
