dadpad wrote:New Zealand born actor bad boy Russel Crow........
Australian actor Russel Crow was awarded...........
This always fascinates me, but I do tend to think the Kiwis resent it more than we do (ie that we 'steal' all their treasures).
I have never heard of any SAS type raids on NZ where talent is kidnapped and brought here to be brainwashed into saying 'chips' properly.
And I will always remember Russell Crowe's Oscar acceptance speech which contained -
"...God Bless America,
God Save the Queen.
God Defend New Zealand
And thank Christ for Australia!"
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/push-for-union-with-new-zealand/2006/12/04/11650808778
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Push for union with New Zealand
Email Print Normal font Large font Tim Dick
December 5, 2006
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NZ, Australia 'should consider merger'
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AdvertisementAUSTRALIA and New Zealand should work towards a full union, or at least have a single currency and more common markets, a federal parliamentary committee says.
It wants a closer relationship between the six Australasian colonies that formed the Commonwealth in 1901, and the errant one that chose to go it alone.
The committee chairman, the Liberal Peter Slipper, said the world had changed since then.
Other MPs on the committee include Malcolm Turnbull, Nicola Roxon and Daryl Melham. Their report said: "While Australia and New Zealand are of course two sovereign nations, it seems to the committee that the strong ties between the two countries - the economic, cultural, migration, defence, governmental and people-to-people linkages - suggest that an even closer relationship, including the possibility of union, is both desirable and realistic."
It wants a joint committee between the two parliaments to report on the possibility of union.
"This is not an attempt to annex New Zealand, or have a compulsory takeover," Mr Slipper told the Herald. Any change would have to be voluntary and mutually beneficial.
A spokesman for New Zealand's Prime Minister, Helen Clark, declined to comment.
The committee also said a common currency should be "actively" pursued, despite the Treasurer, Peter Costello, and his New Zealand counterpart, Michael Cullen, saying last year that it was not on the agenda.
Mr Costello does not want to get rid of the Australian dollar, and Dr Cullen does not want to adopt it, but the New Zealand Government looks more kindly on a common Anzac currency.
When I heard this on the news today I had to smile at the comment on whether NZ would become the seventh state or whether we would become West Island.
According to Keith Suter's Global Notebook...
The Australian constitution retains a provision that enables New Zealand to join the federation if it wants to.
He also explores other historical differences that explain why we don't feel like we are the same culturally.
James Cook preferred and Australian settlement because the few indigenous peoples he met in Australia seemed 'inoffensive and not given to cruelty' but the maori's he met scared him (and he was eventually eaten by them).
Australia was a penal colony - New Zealand was not and was/is proud of that.
British visitors observe that 'Australians have a relaxed "she'll do mate" mentality, possible partly reflective of the country's Irish Catholic working class or convict origins, while New Zealanders, who were settled by tough Scottish Presbyterians, take themselves more seriously.'
When invited to the constitutional conferences the Kiwi's said they new as much about Africa as they did about Australia.
Over one tenth of all New Zealanders (450,000 - 10%) live in Australia (outnumbering Australia's indigenous peoples) - and the average Kiwi in Australia has a higher standard of living than the average Australian.
Only about 60,000 Australians live in NZ (0.3%).
We sent 40 odd kiwis into the bush last week to fight fires and no word since.
hmmm maybe we should look for em.
Nah!
Thank you pukahe
Well, obviously something I read in the papers a few years back about 800,000 Kiwi's claiming social welfare payments from the Australian Government was wrong (Social Welfare includes much more than the dole).
Having been to NZ and read it's papers in a number of cities, it astounded me how often they bag Australia. Most newspapers did so, and many not just once, but multiple times over on numerous pages.
NZ has a history of standing up to the US. True, but somehow I doubt that anyone would ever want to invade them - too far from anywhere. No doubt why they keep a minimal defence force.
In contrast, Australia has the worlds largest Islamic nation on it's doorstep - off the NW coast of Australia. Australia also has HUGE natural gas (and some Oil) fields off it's NW shelf.
Consequently, Australia doesn't just pander to the US. It panders to Indonesia as well.
The people of East Timor during WW2 eventually paid with 60,000 lives to prevent a Japanese AirBase that could threaten Australia from being built there (Australian lives lost were in the few hundreds). When Australia left, they dropped leaflets saying 'we never forget our friends'. In 1975 when Indonesia invaded, Australia 'forgot it's friends' and stood by and watched. Over the years, 200,000 East Timorese were then slaughtered (UN figures), until Independence. Not a Bleep of protest from the Australian Government.
There is little doubt that the same slaughter is happening in West Papua, which contains one of the biggest copper mines (and others) in the world, and contributes very significantly to the Indonesian Economy. 20 Assylum seekers from West Papua landed on Australia shores about a year ago, talking of torture and murder. The Indonesian government was in an uproar. The Australian Governments response was to change the laws so such an 'embarrasment' would never happen again.
Should Australia and NZ have the same currency? It probably makes sense (though it might be weaker, relative to the Aussie dollar, because of the weaker NZ dollar). But should NZ become the 7th State? I don't think so (even though I've made plenty of jokes about it). There are a lot of detriments to doing such a thing :
1. Law changes
2. Different treatment of Pacific Islanders
3. Less rivalry (think sports etc)
4. One governement can't make the other look bad (important to democracy and politicians actually trying to get it right)
5. Defence policy becomes problematic
other stuff too I'm sure - that was just of the top of my head
lezzles wrote:By its proximity to us, I just cannot see the Yanks letting anyone attack NZ. (The question arises - like who would want to) but for argument's sake...
We might not agree with the US on many things (or even most things) but we do rely on them for support in time of need. It is an unfortunate fact of life. Our navy these days comprises one Manly ferry and a pilot launch (oh yes, I forgot, a fleet of submarines, very expensive submarines, that don't work under water), and we have no one else to depend on if it ever hit the fan. (The UK? hahahahahahahahaha!)
I'm waiting and hoping for some Kiwi input to this thread...!
lezzles, if I didn't know you were Australian, I would swear this was spoken by a Canadian (right down to the defective submarines)! It would appear we are in the same leaky boat re: our relationship to the US.
And hingehead, Canada has plenty to be ashamed about re: our relationships with our First Nation peoples.
Sorry to but in, the topic sounded interesting.
Two ads commissioned by the NZ govt to divert tourists away from Australia toward NZ
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruentransfer/thepitch.htm
I couldnt connect with those links hingehead so heres another to all the Gruen transfer
"Sell the Unsellable" pitches.
Each week two of the advertising industry's finest agencies are pitted against each other and tasked with selling the unsellable.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruentransfer/poll/vote/past.htm
