We might as well seeing as we have so many New Zealanders over here on welfare anyway.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/Australia-NZ-hold-common-market-talks/2007/01/29/1169919246131.html

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has started talks with his Kiwi counterpart on creating a common economic market.

Greens co-leader Russel Norman reportedly has said New Zealand businesses are at a disadvantage because Australia has not signed up to the Kyoto Treaty on climate change.

Mr Norman said New Zealand businesses effectively were subsidising Australia which did not have to pay the cost of cutting emissions.

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http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australian_MPs_suggest_Australia_and_New_Zealand_unification

A committee of Australian MPs have suggested that Australia and New Zealand become a single nation in the future. The suggestion follows an investigation into harmonising the countries' legal systems.

The two countries are separated by 1900 Km (1200 miles) of sea. Australia has a population of 20 million, while New Zealand has a population of 4 million.

Prior to 1901, New Zealand was considered one of the seven British colonies of Australasia, six of which united to form Australia in 1901.

The committee, which had representatives from both sides of Australian politics found that there were close ties between the two countries. People are free to move between the two countries without visas and there is a high-degree of co-operation between governments. The committee's report said "While New Zealand ultimately chose not to join the federation, it is still included in the definition of the states in the Australian constitution.

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http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=292364

Australia and New Zealand have been urged to put national rivalries aside and do what many say is unthinkable -- merge to form a single nation.

A cross-party committee of Australian lawmakers said in a report that the Tasman Sea neighbours should consider legal and monetary union with a view to eventually becoming one country.

Looks like it's not just our thongs that they steal 

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Kiwis-worstbehaved-visitors/2007/02/02/1169919520667.html

It's official - New Zealanders are the worst behaved visitors to Australia.

Department of Immigration statistics show that over a recent three-year period more New Zealanders were deported or "forcibly removed" from Australia than guests from any other nation.

All of those shown in these statistics as having been deported had also served jail sentences in Australia before being shown the door.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Limit-western-immigration-to-NZ-Maoris/2007/02/26/1172338535004.html

New Zealand's Maori Party has caused a stir after calling for limits on the number of Western immigrants to the country.

The Dominion Post newspaper quoted Turia as saying she was most worried about migrants from Australia, Canada and Britain.

However, New Zealand government figures show the net number of Australians in the country has gone down by more than 42,000 in the past two years.

The net number of migrants from the United Kingdom has increased by about 20,000 in the same period, while the number of people from the United States and Canada has risen by 2100.

Maori people in New Zealand are allocated a number of seats in parliament based on their percentage of the population.

Statistics New Zealand recently said the allocation would not increase from seven to eight because too few people had signed onto the Maori electoral role, relative to the overall population.

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Australia, NZ currency 'decades away'

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/australia-nz-currency-decades-away/2007/03/01/1172338774555.html

A single currency between Australia and New Zealand could be decades away even though both countries are working towards closer economic ties.

Treasurer Peter Costello said that a trans-Tasman currency could happen given there is one in Europe covering a much more diverse range of countries.

But he told AAP that it was very much up to New Zealand to want it, rather than Australia.

"I have made it clear that we're not interested in a new currency here, so the ball is in New Zealand's court, but as I understand it they are not interested in a new currency there," he said.

"But who knows in 20 years time."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/single-australianz-market-nearer-govt/2007/04/22/1177180470796.html

Australia and New Zealand are edging closer toward a single economic market despite traditional sensitivities between the neighbours, foreign minister Alexander Downer said.

At the opening of the Australia-New Zealand Leadership Forum in Sydney on Sunday, Mr Downer said the two economies were already benefiting from close relations, but a single market would make them both stronger.

If people had paid attention in History classes, they might have found out that the proposal to merge the colonies of Australia and New Zealand (and Fiji) were made at the time of Federation.   Indeed, both refused but they are still mentioned in the Preamble to the Constitution as possible, additional states.

Now, personally, I have nothing against the Kiwis but I doubt I'd like to see us stuck with what would be essentially another Tasmania - a drag on our economy.  Let them remain independent.  We can become closely integrated without being amalgamated.

freediver wrote on Apr 23^rd, 2007 at 1:29pm:


Well, until they up production, they'll still remain a drain on the Oz economy.

Merge?----NO!!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/maori-attitudes-to-immigrants-harden/2007/07/22/1185042919892.html

The attitudes of New Zealand's Maoris toward immigrants are hardening, a university survey shows.

"New Zealanders generally were still quite ambivalent about immigrants," Prof Spoonley said.

"We like the diverse food and we like what they're doing to our economy by contributing skills and capital but [we] also see immigrants as sticking together rather than integrating, and that is seen as a negative thing."

He added attitudes to immigrants and various aspects of immigration were usually more negative among Aucklanders than other New Zealanders.

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Work ethics don’t fit cultural moulds

http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=12593

The Western work ethic of rewarding individual hard work is at odds with the cultures of many indigenous groups, according to UQ social science graduate Dr Ruby Welch.

Dr Welch spent the last 10 years studying the work ethic, and the social structure of New Zealand's Maori people and compared her findings with those of mainstream New Zealand society, or the Pakeha system.

“Although some Pakeha argue that Maori are lazy, my findings prove that Maori are hard workers albeit for different goals and purposes than their Pakeha counterparts,” Dr Welch said.

“Governments in Western societies such as New Zealand and Australia have assumed that all actors in the market, irrespective of cultural background, aspire to the same rewards and outcomes for their individual activities.

“Consequently, policymakers tend to put in place legislation without considering the differences in the value and belief constructs of the various actors who participate in the workforce.

“The regulations of Western labour systems are, therefore at odds with many indigenous concepts of work and my findings equally apply to the Australian Aboriginal people as they would to the various Indian tribes of North America.”

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Australia, NZ seek closer economic ties

http://news.smh.com.au/australia-nz-seek-closer-economic-ties/20080117-1mkv.html

Australia and New Zealand have agreed to seek closer economic ties in the first meeting between federal Treasurer Wayne Swan and his NZ counterpart Michael Cullen.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (ANZCERTA) signed by the Hawke government in 1983.

He said future work would include the renegotiation of the Australia-New Zealand bilateral tax treaty.