Former Deputy PM Backs New Zealand Becoming Australia’s 7th State

Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce (and Nationals MP) speaking at CPAC conference in Sydney, Australia on Aug. 19, 2023. (Wade Zhong/The Epoch Times)

Australia could finally win a rugby game if New Zealand becomes its seventh state, former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has said about the recently revived debate about merging the two countries.

Mr. Joyce said while Kiwis wouldn’t be in favour of such a merger, the idea should be floated for consideration.

He suggested that New Zealand could help Australia in rugby and Australia could help New Zealand in cricket while saying that becoming one country would be good for defence and monetary policy.

“It’s not going to happen but logically, why do we have two defence forces and two different monetary policies? They should be the single policy,” he told Nine’s Today Show. “It was supposed to happen under history.”

He noted that it could still happen if Kiwis were supportive of the idea.

“We could bring them in without a referendum. It’s actually part of the Constitution now,” Mr. Joyce said, referring to Section 6 of the Australian Constitution.

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His comments come after retiring New Zealand Labour MP Jamie Strange reignited the debate by suggesting that New Zealand should not dismiss the idea of becoming part of Australia.

“Every time I visit Australia, I often ponder the thought: Will we ever become one country—Australia and New Zealand? My personal view, and it’s only a personal view, is that New Zealanders shouldn’t rule that out,” Mr. Strange told the New Zealand Parliament during his valedictory statement on Aug. 15.

“There would certainly be economic benefits, economies of scale in the private and public sector, opening ALDI stores on our shores.

“In fact, technically the option remains open for New Zealand to join Australia under their Constitution.”

He joked that the main problem was in merging the cricket teams.

“But we conquered Everest, so you never know,” he said, referring to Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealander who was one of the two climbers confirmed as the first to have reached the summit of Mt. Everest.

Is It Possible in the 21st Century?

New Zealand was once administered by the state of New South Wales and the country had also considered the idea of joining Australia as a state before its federation in 1901. However, the head of New Zealand in 1899, Premier Richard Seddon, opposed it, preferring to become an independent country.

As such, the debate has been ongoing for decades and is not a new idea.

Rory Bunker, a New Zealand data scientist at Nagoya University argues for joining Australia, saying it would provide “significant economic benefits” for New Zealand.

“Trade and investment would become more frictionless. The nations’ economies would also become immediately more diversified: New Zealand into resources and Australia into dairy,” he wrote in Stuff News in April.

Like Mr. Strange, Mr. Bunker also brought up the example of ALDI opening its doors in New Zealand.

“In the private sector, retailers such as Aldi Australia would have fewer barriers to establishing themselves in the New Zealand market, leading to lower prices for basic goods for New Zealand consumers,” he said.

Mr. Bunker also noted Australia’s stronger military presence in the Asia-Pacific region citing Sydney-based Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index which currently has Australia ranked sixth.

Meanwhile, New Zealand is ranked 13th, behind countries Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

“The combined militaries of ‘Australasia’ would be able to better ensure the safety and security of citizens and provide a strong deterrent against potential threats,” Mr. Bunker said, amid a backdrop of increasing military coercion from the Chinese Communist Party.

However, Adjunct Professor Dominic O’Sullivan from Auckland University of Technology disagrees, noting that since the debate began back in the 1890s, Australia and New Zealand have forged their own unique identities.

“Thinking seriously about the idea would also require both countries to consider how they might forge a different Commonwealth together. And that would require an assessment of underlying national values that rarely troubles political discourse in either country,” he said.

He also noted that a union would not involve “coming together as equals.”

“Under the Australian Constitution, the New Zealand state parliament would be responsible for schooling, hospitals, and transport, among the reserve powers of the Australian states,” Mr. O’Sullivan said.

“Foreign policy, defence, monetary policy, higher education, pharmaceutical, and GP funding would be among the responsibilities transferred to Canberra.

“A better cricket team might not be compensation enough.”