WALTZING WITH MATILDA: Should New Zealand Join Australia?

• Author: HOADLEY, STEPHEN
• Position: Review

WALTZING WITH MATILDA: Should New Zealand Join Australia? Author: Bob Catley Published by: Dark Horse Publishing, Wellington, 2001, 240pp, $29.95.

Waltzing with Matilda is a timely book. Appearing after a series of proposals for common currency, stock market, immigration and defence, it is a cautionary analysis. It canvasses not only' the economic impulses for union but also the formidable constitutional and political obstacles.

The premise is familiar: New Zealand and Australia are as similar as any two countries could be. So, why not amalgamate economically, and even politically, and thereby gain economies of scale and international gravitas?

Catley looks critically at this proposition. In chapters on people, constitutional history, politics, welfare, foreign and trade policies, and sport he reveals irreducible and growing differences. Along the way he teaches the reader a great deal about each country as reflected in the mirror of the other's perceptions.

His inventory of states and peoples that have amalgamated yields five general conditions that assist mergers: similar economic development, complementary economies, adjacent territory, similar cultural values, and political structures that can accommodate shared and individual interests of both sides. Of these, accommodation of interests, `as set by their ruling political classes', is most important, Catley concludes. He then presents his own survey of members of Parliament from both sides of the Tasman. Majorities in both countries agreed that

* CER was beneficial,

* New Zealand should press for a common currency,

* economic union was desirable and would benefit New Zealand most,

* political union should be considered next, and

* cultural identity could be preserved in a political union.

Most sobering is the chapter on Practical Considerations. The obstacles to union include not only the current government's disinclination to put trans-Tasman union on the agenda but also structural problems of entrenched welfare and defence policies, cultural and political identity, and above all constitutional issues...