An opinion piece by David Farrar, owner/operator of Kiwiblog – a right-leaning blog site – suggests that New Zealand should become the 7th State of Australia.
It is similarly interesting to note that when one looks at the layout of the road network in the Australian capital city Canberra (Australian Capital Territory/A.C.T.), a gap in the radial roads is left open. In Canberra there are six radial routes, each named for a state capital – Brisbane in Queensland, Sydney in New South Wales, Hobart in Tasmania, Adelaide in South Australia, Melbourne in Victoria and Perth in Western Australia. A gap exists where there would be a seventh one – should the leaders of New Zealand ever decide to join.
Except, we will not be. Aside from the uniform statement of the leaders of the four largest parties in Parliament saying that New Zealand joining the Commonwealth of Australian States is not going to happen, there are very good reasons why this is not a good idea. And why commentator David Farrar can keep dreaming. Before this article continues into the reasons, it is important to note that Mr Farrar is not the first person to have this inane idea. Nor I suspect will he be the last.
- The Treaty of Waitangi. This is exclusively a treaty between the Crown of England and tangata whenua Maori. This has nothing to do with Australia, or Australians. It is -despite what Atlas Network plebs like Hobsons Pledge, Taxpayers Union and Free Speech Union would likely have you believe – the most important component of the constitutional framework of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Australia would be obligated to continue the fractious treaty settlement process, which I suspect most would – very understandably – find simply intolerable on the grounds of being dragged into another nations very personal business. Then there is the fact that not all iwi have settlements with the Crown, and in fact not all have even opened negotiations with the Crown. Numerous other reasons exist too, but for the sake of readability within a few minutes, I deliberately stop here.
- Despite our similarities, we also have a significant range of differences, particularly economically. Reconciling them might be similar to the economic reconciliation of the two Cold War era German nations. It is still on going in some respects, and has been going on now long enough that some are starting to wonder whether the economic cost has been worth the rewards – years/decades from whenever any union of New Zealand and Australia did happen, it is quite plausible that New Zealanders and Australians alike will be wondering if the economic cost was worth taking up Mr Farrar’s idea.
- Culturally we are not as similar as some would like to think. We have a stronger lineage with the Polynesian nations being in the Polynesian triangle and – at one point – Auckland having the largest population of Polynesian people in the world. We have an evolving national identity that many in conservative Australia I think would simply refuse to reconcile with around our Maori and Polynesian heritage, which would run the serious risk of stoking inflammatory racial tensions, particularly with firebrand politician such as One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
- Would Australians accept the drag that is likely to accompany in a more general sense? I am thinking on the Australian dollar, the necessary extra spending on defence bringing the N.Z. Defence Force up to speed with their Australian counterparts, the changes to immigration policies that would be necessary? I am not trying to speak ill of New Zealand, but we move to two quite different sets of drums.
- The Aboriginal peoples of Australia will push much harder for Australians to accept that formal remediation is needed to address the many and significant past injustices that have gone down. This includes the huge harm done because of the “Stolen Generation”. Given that Australians have a hard enough time at the moment accepting that they have work to do on this, I cannot imagine pressure from non-Australians to reconcile with Maori going down at all well with most political parties across the Australian political spectrum. It is not that I think this is a bad idea – I was hugely disappointed, but not dreadfully surprised when the “NO” vote prevailed.
- WHY? Just WHY would New Zealand want to merge with Australia. We are a proudly independent nation and this has massive Trumpian “Canada become 51st State of U.S.” overtones that quite frankly I think the vast majority of New Zealanders understand and even believe are simply not needed, nor welcome here. Just get lost.
- And one more. One that is cherished by most New Zealanders, including myself. New Zealand is nuclear free. Australia is on its way to commissioning its first nuclear submarine under the AUKUS defence strategy.
Leftist Kiwi Writes 