Australia and New Zealand 'should become one' (2 Viewers)

[BlackDragon]

Haha - I'd like that rugby team.

i know, how bloody awesome would that be. we'd never lose a game.
and oh god, think of the netball team. we'd be gods.

 

[Serius]

i would like to see it happen, but i dont know if it would. One big bennefit [for us] would be defence, combining their armed forces with ours would mean that we have a much bigger home defence [considering alot of our resources are overseas]
cheaper travel, free trade whats not to love? oh well theres the fact that they would be getting screwed over in almost every area.

 

[Raginsheep]

To be honest, NZ virtually has no defence force relatively speaking.

 

[Aryanbeauty]

I always wondered why NZ was not included into Australia. I asked one Kiwi friend and he said they would only be an australian state like Tasmania and not a country with no significance in international arena. It's not surprising that many people in other countries never heard New South Wales and many; maybe most people think the capital of australia is Sydney.

There will be more benefit for NZ in economic sphere as it will be represented by Australia in economic and trade related matters as Australia is unlikely to be disadvantaged or walked over by other trade block like the EU did to New Zealand earlier this year by banning NZ butter for no apparent reason http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/story14629.html

 

[loquasagacious]

It is worth considering several things overlooked so far:
Pro:
-The Australian constitution already has a section for incorporating new territory (this was written basically for NZ).
-Culturally we are very alike anyway, see we compete in 'national' sporting comps etc
-Our laws are already similar
-We share some regulatory bodies
-We already share an extent of free trade

Con:
-They would be loosing sovereignty
-The maori issue eg dedicated maori seats in parliament
-Their economy is in worse shape than ours so we would be taking on a 'fixer-upper' think west germany getting lumped with east germany.
-Tri-nations reduced to bi-nations which is just funny

Verdict:
Ultimately I think it will happen but thats along way down the track yet and would just be the inevitable culmination of harmonised laws, creation of a free-trade bloc, etc etc.

 

[HotShot]

Not necessarily - they can still be part of australia and still hold their national teams.
It need not be a complete merge.

Just maybe an economic merge similar to the european union?

 

[townie]

i'd be more in favour of a European Merger type thing as well, but a highly binding one (which i believe the EU is) but i think for such a merger, other countries pacific nations would have to be involved, or at least work towards that goal

 

[Not-That-Bright]

i'd be more in favour of a European Merger type thing as well, but a highly binding one (which i believe the EU is) but i think for such a merger, other countries pacific nations would have to be involved, or at least work towards that goal

Why would we want a EU style bloc with ANY pacific island state other than NZ? lol

 

[poloktim]

Not to mention a lot of Pacific island states hate Australia.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

We can create the OU and see if it can be more reprehensible than the EU, which shouldn't be too hard considering the corruption in most pacific island nations is world-class.

 

[Anthonygeorgiou]

At the end of the day, I suppose we are pretty similar with our sytems of government, and linkages between our two nations. Either way wouldn't really be detrimental. I suppose if we merged trade would increase and maybe migration. If we didn't they'd still be a regional ally, with many similarities.

 

[Sparcod]

I remember that some time ago, Johnny wanted all the Pacific Islands to adopt the same currency.

Well, NZ money is "accepted" here in NSW. I use it all the time. I don't know why they are still in circulation.

 

[Affinity]

If it aint broke don't fix it. And remember EU's seeds were sowed in a war, or a few wars

 

[loquasagacious]

Why would we want an OU???

Given how pissweak the other pacific islands are it would just be 'The Australian Empire'.... and who wants an empire compossed of shit countries?? The gain from an empire like that is zilch versus a cost of lots hence OU would be a net loss to Australia.

Hell we already essentially run 'Pax Australis' in the islands and are generally unpopular for it why go out of our way to spend more money and be more unpopular???

 

[katie_tully]

Hahahahaha.
Basically the only thing keeping those countries afloat is tourism, Australian aid and probably some dodgy 'dealing'.
We'd become responsible for a conglomerate of uselessness, and we already have that. I like to call it Tasmania.

 

[katie_tully]

To be honest, NZ virtually has no defence force relatively speaking.

Unless the sheep start a revolt, they don't really need one. AUS gets US hand-me-downs and NZ gets our hand-me-downs. If the sheep DID revolt, I'd say the kiwis could stand their ground for like, 3 minutes - or until their 60 year old carrier ships sink and their 40 year old helicopters spontaneously combust.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

Why would we want an OU???

It's a good way to employ more public servants.

 

[katie_tully]

Ah, fetch me my slippers will you?

 

[wuddie]

yea the only way nz currency is acceptable here is because it is very hard to tell from aussie coins, and their values are pretty much the same anyway, so i doubt the shop keepers will bother to check that each coin is legit... it'd be funny if they did, just imagine a guy comes into the bank with a bag of coins...

 

[banco55]

Why would we want an OU???

Given how pissweak the other pacific islands are it would just be 'The Australian Empire'.... and who wants an empire compossed of shit countries?? The gain from an empire like that is zilch versus a cost of lots hence OU would be a net loss to Australia.

Hell we already essentially run 'Pax Australis' in the islands and are generally unpopular for it why go out of our way to spend more money and be more unpopular???

I agree. However I do think it would be a good idea to have a Australian "foreign legion" made up of men from the pacific islands. We have a hard time recruiting enough men for the army, those countries have too much unemployed and it would be an effective way to boost the economies of the pacific islands. Have pacific islanders as the rank and file with the officer corps made up of australians.