Everything about Australia-new Zealand Relations totally explained
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, although this is modified by the fact that Australia and New Zealand are both middle powers as far as global affairs are concerned. Some have defined the relationship as less one of friendship than of brotherhood, beset by sibling rivalry.
Relations between the two countries have been tense at times over relatively minor matters, such as sporting competitions involving rugby or cricket (for instance, the
underarm delivery incident), or commerce between the two countries (for example, Australia's anger over the
Air New Zealand/
Ansett Airlines fiasco).
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. Immigration, employment, and residency policies are also very liberal and generous between citizens of either nation, similar to a two-nation model
European Union. The only major exception to these privileges is for individuals with outstanding warrants or criminal backgrounds deemed dangerous or undesirable for the migrant nation and its citizens.
History
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. Although New Zealanders like to emphasise that their country was never a
penal colony, neither were all the Australian colonies. In particular,
South Australia was founded and settled in a similar manner to New Zealand, both being influenced by the ideas of
Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Both Australia and New Zealand experienced ongoing conflict with the indigenous populations - although this conflict took very different forms - and experienced nineteenth century gold rushes. During the nineteenth century there was extensive trade and travel between the colonies.
While the colonies of Australia 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,New Zealand was invited to join the Federation but declined . Although the two countries continued to co-operate politically, both sought closer relations with Britain, particularly in the area of trade. This was helped by the development of refrigerated shipping, which allowed New Zealand in particular to base its economy on the export of meat and dairy (both of which Australia had in abundance) to Britain.
In the 1908 London Olympics and the 1912 Stockholm Olympics Australia and New Zealand were represented by a unified team named "Australasia". In the precursor to the Empire (later Commonwealth) Games, the 1911 London "Festival of Empire", both Australia and New Zealand also fielded a unified Australasian team.
The quantity of trans-Tasman trade has increased by 9% per annum since the early 1980s, with the
Closer Economic Relations free trade agreement of 1983 being a major turning point. This was partially a result of Britain joining the
European Economic Community in the early 1970s, thus restricting the access of both countries to their biggest export market.
Relationships
Military
In the early twentieth century, both countries were enthusiastic members of the
British Empire and both sent soldiers to the
Boer War,
First World War and
Second World War and to a lesser extent the
Korean War and
Vietnam War.
In the First World War, the soldiers of both countries were formed into the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs). Together Australia and New Zealand saw their first major military action in the
Battle of Gallipoli, in which both (along with other allied nations) suffered major casualties. For many decades the battle was seen by both countries as the moment at which they came of age as nations. It continues to be commemorated annually in both countries on
Anzac Day, although since the 1960s there has been some questioning of the 'coming of age' idea. Despite this, Anzac Day has attracted increased numbers in recent years, in both Australia and New Zealand.
World War Two was a major turning point for both countries, as they realised that they could no longer rely on the protection of Britain. Australia was particularly struck by this realisation, as it came close to being invaded by Japan, and the city of
Darwin was bombed and when
Broome was attacked. Subsequently, both countries sought closer ties with the United States. This resulted in the
ANZUS pact of 1951, in which Australia,
New Zealand and the
United States agreed to defend each other in the event of enemy attack. Although no such attack occurred until (arguably)
September 11 2001, New Zealand and Australia both contributed troops to the
Korean and
Vietnam Wars.
Australia's contribution to the Vietnam War in particular was much larger than New Zealand's; while Australia introduced
conscription,
New Zealand sent only a token force. Australia has continued to be more committed to the American alliance,
ANZUS, than New Zealand; although both countries felt considerable unease about American military policy in the 1980s, New Zealand angered the United States by refusing port access to nuclear ships from 1985 and in retaliation, the United States 'suspended' its obligations under the ANZUS treaty to New Zealand. Australia has made a significant contribution to the
Iraq War, while New Zealand's much smaller military contribution was limited to
UN-authorised reconstruction tasks.
In 2001 the
Australia-New Zealand Memorial was opened by the prime ministers of both countries on
ANZAC Parade, Canberra. The memorial commemorates the shared effort to achieve common goals in both peace and war.
ANZAC Bridge in Sydney was given its current name on
Remembrance Day in 1998 to honour the memory of the soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) served in World War I. An Australian Flag flies atop the eastern pylon and a New Zealand Flag flies atop the western pylon. A bronze memorial statue of an Australian ANZAC soldier ("digger") holding a
Lee Enfield rifle pointing down was placed on the western end of the bridge on ANZAC Day in 2000. A statue of a New Zealand solider was added to a plinth across the road from the Australian Digger, facing towards the east, and unveiled by
Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark in the presence of
Premier of New South Wales Morris Iemma on Sunday
27 April 2008.
Intra-migration
Many people have emigrated from New Zealand to Australia, including the former
Premier of Queensland,
Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the
Premier of South Australia,
Mike Rann, comedian turned psychologist
Pamela Stephenson and actor Russell Crowe. Australians who have emigrated to New Zealand include
Michael Joseph Savage, the 23rd Prime Minister of New Zealand,
Russel Norman, co-leader of the
Green Party, and
Matt Robson, deputy leader of the
Progressive Party.
In recent decades, many New Zealanders have migrated to Australian cities such as
Sydney,
Brisbane,
Melbourne and
Perth.
The
Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement of 1973 means that, 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 have chosen 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're eligible for such payments. However, there are complaints in New Zealand that there's a
brain drain to Australia.
New Zealand Ministry of Education figures show the number of Australians at New Zealand tertiary institutions almost doubled from 1978 students in 1999 to 3916 in 2003. In 2004 more than 2700 Australians received student loans and 1220 a student allowance. Unlike other overseas students, Australians pay the same fees for higher education as New Zealanders and are eligible for student loans and allowances. New Zealand students are not treated on the same basis as Australian students in Australia.
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 other's markets.
In 2005 and 2006 the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs inquired into the harmonisation of legal systems within Australia, and with New Zealand, with particular reference to those differences that have an impact on trade and commerce. The Committee stated that the already close relationship between Australia and New Zealand should be closer still and that 'In this era of globalisation, it makes sense for Australia and New Zealand to look at moving closer together and further aligning their regulatory frameworks'. Key recommendations on the Australia-New Zealand relationship included:
- Establishment of a trans-Tasman parliamentary committee to monitor legal harmonisation and examine options including closer association or union;
- Pursuit of a common currency;
- Offering New Zealand Ministers full membership of Australian ministerial councils;
- Work to advance harmonisation of the two banking and telecommunications regulation frameworks.
However, there are some trading issues between the countries, for example over the importation of
apples. Australia has restricted the import of apples from New Zealand owing to Australian growers' fears of introducing
fire blight disease. A ban on importation of New Zealand apples into Australia has been in place since 1921, following the discovery of fire blight in New Zealand in 1919. New Zealand authorities applied for re-admittance to the Australian market in 1986, 1989 and 1995, but the ban continued. In 2002, the United States filed an action with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against Japan's restrictions on apple imports; New Zealand and Australia both joined the case as third parties. After the WTO Compliance Panel ruled in favour of the U.S. in 2003 and again in 2005, Japan opened its market to U.S. apples. Further talks over Australia's import restrictions on apples from New Zealand failed, and New Zealand initiated WTO dispute resolution proceedings in 2007.
Political union
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. At the time of Federation, Australia had a strict
White Australia policy and
indigenous Australians were not granted citizenship and the vote as early as the Māori in New Zealand, who had full citizenship, and universal suffrage since 1893.
Māori people had voting rights in Australia since 1902 as a result of the
Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, part of the effort to allay New Zealand's concerns about joining the Federation.
Indigenous Australians didn't have the vote until 1962. During the parliamentary debates over the Act,
King O'Malley supported the inclusion of Māori, and the exclusion of
Australian Aboriginals, in the franchise, arguing that "An aboriginal isn't as intelligent as a Maori."
From time to time the idea of joining Australia has been mooted, but has been ridiculed by New Zealanders. When Australia's former
Liberal party leader,
John Hewson, raised the issue in 2000,
New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark remarked that he could "dream on". A 2001 book by Australian academic Bob Catley, then at the
University of Otago, titled
Waltzing with Matilda: should New Zealand join Australia?, was described by New Zealand political commentator
Colin James as "a book for Australians".
Unlike Canadians and Americans, who share a land border, New Zealand and Australia are more than 1920 km (1200 miles) apart, comparable with the distance from England to Africa. Arguing against Australian statehood, New Zealand's
Premier,
Sir John Hall, remarked that there were "1200 reasons" not to join the federation. New Zealand Government submissions to that committee concerning harmonisation of legal systems however noted
Differences between the legal systems of Australia and New Zealand are not a problem in themselves. The existence of such differences is the inevitable product of well-functioning democratic decision-making processes in each country, which reflect the preferences of stakeholders, and their effective voice in the law-making process.
Membership of international organizations
New Zealand and Australia are exclusive members of a collection of five countries who participate in the highly secretive
ECHELON program. New Zealand has known listening posts at
Waihopai and
Tangimoana run by the
Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) as part of the ECHELON spy network. Australia has a listening post at
Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station at Geraldton, Western Australia run by staff from the American
National Security Agency and the Australian
Defence Signals Directorate. The ECHELON communications interception network includes the U.S., Britain and Canada as well as New Zealand and Australia and is known as the
UKUSA Community.
Other joint defence arrangements between New Zealand and Australia include the
Five Power Defence Arrangements and
ANZUS.
Similarities
Australia and New Zealand are both prosperous western democracies, and
constitutional monarchies (with the
same monarch) situated in the
Oceania region. Both countries are members of the
Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, most of which are former British colonies.
New Zealand and Australia are characterised by political stability, relatively high incomes, egalitarian cultures, low levels of corruption, 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 originally dominated by an
Anglo-Celtic culture, both countries have become increasingly multi-cultural in the latter decades of the 20th century.
Differences
Founding settlers
Most of the colonies that later became Australia were set up as convict settlements, whilst New Zealand was settled by free settlers. The European population of Australia from early times contained a large
Irish Catholic minority, many of whom were hostile to the British overclass, in comparison to New Zealand which was largely settled by
English and
Scots loyal to the British Crown. This resulted in some significant differences in attitude to authority; New Zealand never had an equivalent to the
Eureka Stockade revolt, and
republicanism has been less of an issue than in Australia. In this respect, as well as in stereotypes (see below), the differences between New Zealand and Australia resemble those between Canada and the United States, respectively.
Indigenous relations
Since the beginning of European settlement, one of the major differences between Australia and New Zealand has been in the area of race relations. In part, this originated with the very different cultures of
Māori and
Indigenous Australians. When Europeans arrived, Australian Aboriginal culture was ancient and had been more or less unchanged for centuries, while
Māori culture was relatively young. This was perhaps the reason why Indigenous Australians showed no interest in European goods and were thus reluctant to trade or otherwise co-operate with Europeans, while Māori enthusiastically adopted many European goods and ideas (including
Christianity). As a result, Māori were seen as intelligent and capable of civilisation, whereas Aborigines were widely seen as primitive and unable to learn. One result of this is that
Māori gained voting rights in Australia six decades before
Indigenous Australians (and indeed before any other non-white group). As
James Belich points out, it wasn't the case that white New Zealanders were less racist than white Australians, but rather that Māori were seen by both groups as superior to most other 'coloured' peoples.
Another difference was in the nature of early settlement. The first European settlements in Australia were penal colonies, and the brutality of these inevitably impacted on the indigenous population. The country was claimed by Britain by 'right of discovery' and was officially '
terra nullius' (empty land) – a term which didn't deny the existence of Aborigines but did deny their right to the land. In New Zealand, by contrast, some of the earliest settlers were missionaries who sought to convert Māori and protect them from less moral settlers. By 1840, when the
British Crown took possession of New Zealand,
humanitarianism was a major force in Britain. This led to the creation of the
Treaty of Waitangi, which transferred sovereignty from Māori to the Crown but also recognised Māori rights to their land and other properties and gave them the rights of British citizens. Although the Treaty was more or less ignored for most of the next 150 years, it did provide an important precedent, and would enable Māori to gain reparations and cultural recognition in the late twentieth century.
In both countries, there was major conflict between the races for much of the nineteenth century. In Australia this mainly took the form of skirmishes and raids, and wasn't widely considered to be a 'war'. In New Zealand, by contrast, much of the
conflict involved armies and actual battles, which Māori won often enough to be considered as serious opponents. The participation by some Māori groups on the British side of the wars gained them several concessions from the colonial government, the most important being the four
Māori seats in parliament. The wars also helped Māori unity and co-operation; the lack of a shared language made this difficult for Aborigines to achieve. However both peoples became an under-class in the nineteenth century: suffering discrimination, losing much of their land, and going into population decline. Disease and alcohol abuse became problems for both.
Male Māori land owners in New Zealand were
allowed to vote from 1852 and full suffrage was granted to all Māori, including women, from 1893. In contrast, the
situation in Australia was quite different. In 1901, the
Constitution of Australia granted Aborigines the right to vote in Federal elections if their state granted them that right, however in practice that right was often illegally withheld from them. Australian Aborigines didn't obtain universal suffrage until 1962.
From those times, both groups established political movements aimed at regaining lost land, restoring culture and cultural pride, and educating the populace about their past. The
Māori protest movement has been more successful than that of the Aborigines, mostly due to the
Treaty of Waitangi. However decisions such as
Mabo and
Wik have been important in Australia.
Today there's a greater acceptance of the Māori culture in New Zealand than there's of the Aboriginal culture in Australia. The
Māori language is taught in many schools in New Zealand. The
haka, a traditional Māori dance, is performed by both Māori and non-Māori in the
All Blacks. No Aboriginal dance is performed by the
Wallabies; in its place is often a rendition of "
Waltzing Matilda", an iconic Australian song.
Views and stereotypes
Australian views of New Zealand
Australians tend to look upon New Zealand as quainter and more provincial than Australia; New Zealand has only about a fifth of the population and is even further geographically isolated than Australia. Comparisons are drawn between the state of
Tasmania and New Zealand due to their similar climates.
Stereotypes focus on New Zealand as a pastoral land lacking in sophistication and without the modern cosmopolitan nature of contemporary Australia.
New Zealand is inferred as lacking in economic opportunities due to significant numbers of New Zealand immigrants living in Australia. Australia outscores (Rank 3 – 0.957) New Zealand (Rank 20 – 0.936) on the
Human Development Index.
New Zealand citizens are also seen as being productive workers who are seeking greater opportunity within Australia. Those who live in Australia have a higher labour-force participation rate, this being 76.3 per cent, compared with Australian born who have a workforce participation rate of 68.2 per cent.
New Zealand views of Australia
New Zealanders see Australia as larger, brasher and more obnoxious than their society. While conceding that Australia is bigger and wealthier, few New Zealanders view Australia as 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).
New Zealanders regard Australians as loud and opinionated, but New Zealanders and Australians have defended one another in times of war, epitomised by the
ANZAC tradition.
Like Australians, New Zealanders have a 'love-hate' relationship with the
UK, although anti-English sentiment isn't as strong, and
republicanism isn't as emotive an issue as it's in Australia.
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".
References
Sources
Citations
Further Information
Get more info on 'Australia-new Zealand Relations'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://australia-new_zealand_relations.totallyexplained.com">Australia-New Zealand relations Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
