The Prickly Pair: making nationalism in Australia and New Zealand.

• Author: McGibbon, Ian

THE PRICKLY PAIR Making Nationalism in Australia and New Zealand Author: Denis McLean Published by: Otago University Press, Dunedin, 2003, 326pp, $49.99.

Australia and New Zealand, it is often said, 'are like peas in a pod'. Situated on the outskirts of Asia, they share a common strategic outlook. With a similar heritage and espousing similar values, 'they are probably simply more alike than any other two separate nations'. For two countries facing similar problems, close co-operation seems the logical course. A rational assessment of their respective positions would go even further--to amalgamation. Such an outcome, bringing economies of scale and a pooling of resources, assets and talents, could not fail to enhance their overall competitiveness in a globalising world.

In this well researched and lucidly written study, Denis McLean sets out to explain why such an outcome is 'extremely unlikely'. The obstacle, he suggests, is nationalism, the feeling of separateness that is the product of a complex mix of cultural, geographical and political factors. Differences literally 'as old as the hills' have ensured that the two countries 'have grown apart rather than together'. In 200 years they have, he argues, written 'a largely fictitious book of difference' that still impedes them from thinking as a whole.

McLean eschews any claim to have written a 'definitive, comprehensive study' of the relationship between the two countries; instead his approach is based on the belief 'that analysis of some of the ways Australia and New Zealand have diverged may help fill in a few blanks on the map of nationalism'. He goes back to the origins of the settlement in the two countries to demonstrate major divergences, beginning with the very different geographical and geological conditions in the two countries, pattern of indigenous settlement, and initial settlement from Europe. The convict factor would have an important bearing in the early development of a distinctive Australian identity.

In a deft analysis of the origins and nature of nationalism in the two countries, McLean provides an explanation for New Zealand's failure to amalgamate with the six Australian colonies in 1901. 'Perhaps the most significant national decision New Zealand has ever taken was to jump off the bandwagon of Australian federation', he writes. New Zealand went from being one of the more important of seven incipient states to the small neighbour of a new, and increasingly confident...