WILL AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND UNITE?

WOULD FURTHER INTEGRATION BE GOOD FOR NEW ZEALAND?

THE ANALYSIS of what policies will benefit any political group, including a nation, is always a combination of subjective and objective calculations. In this case, the balance will need to be weighed for both Australia and New Zealand: whether the loss of a distinct national identity forged over a century of separate political development would be offset by the material benefits to be gained. Clearly, this is not an issue on which one person may readily speak for another, and particularly for another nation. Since New Zealand is the smaller of the two countries, its national identity would be more at risk were it to enter into a complete political union, for example, as a state of the Commonwealth of Australia. When I conducted an elite opinion survey in both countries, concentrating on national politicians, it showed that New Zealanders for the most part believe they would be able to retain their cultural identity even if New Zealand joined the Australian Commonwealth.

Many people in New Zealand are particularly sensitive about this question of national identity, as the survey also revealed. As a statement of this position, we may cite the paper given by Damien Edwards in Wellington in 1999, "The Seventh State?" This was written in direct response to the "re-emergence of discussion on the prospect of New Zealand becoming part of Australia, perhaps as the seventh state. Indeed recent editions of popular magazines, while not academic in nature, have gone to some lengths to portray the virtues of an amalgamation." (He could have noted, but didn't, that the offending magazine is owned by Kerry packer's Consolidated Press.)

However, Edwards argued, each country has developed a unique identity. Much of the focus of any union has been on the relative merits of an economic union. It is, he thinks, more appropriate to move beyond this and consider the question as one involving national identity. He contends that, when viewed from a perspective of national identity, "the union of these two countries would seem highly problematic, primarily due to the unique identifies each has established". For Edwards, the question of national identity is central to the question of New Zealand and Australia becoming one nation.

New Zealand clearly has developed distinctive national traits and attitudes. These are not, however, incompatible with those of Australia, and are often, indeed, quite consistent with its own existing regional variations. Equally, while in Australia as a whole indigenous people make up only two per cent of the population, in some parts of Australia, the Northern Territory for example, the proportion is higher than in New Zealand.

The central question remains whether New Zealand could retain sufficient control over its identity as a state of Australia. This would need to be clearly established by the terms of entry. The issue then, turns on what countervailing advantage New Zealand could hope to gain from deeper integration. However, Edwards is quite right to say that much of this argument is couched in economic terms. Here we have better evidence.

A number of business organisations have argued for closer relations, notably the Australia New Zealand Business Council In the case of the survey done on monetary union, business opinion was overwhelmingly positive, and a parliamentary inquiry is under way. At least one newspaper has editorialised in favour of political union and others are sympathetic to the proposal. Indeed, there is some reason to suspect that the two major Australian media barons, Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch, favour such a development. They might well turn their extensive media outlets in New Zealand in that direction, were a policy debate about the matter to develop.