When Finance Minister Michael Cullen floated the prospect of a common citizenship for New Zealanders and Australians the reaction from his political boss was damning.
Aussie Rules, Okay? may be the reality on transtasman rugby fields, but forget about taking any steps which might lead to Australians dictating the political and business turf as well.
The facts are:
Prime Minister Helen Clark's quick putdown may have won her a few Brownie points with some voters, but New Zealand business has already forced the game to begin through the big splurge of transtasman investment.
The prospect of expanding the Closer Economic Relations (CER) agreement between Australia and New Zealand to the Asean free trade arena is the other - and more potent - driving force.
Former Rogernomes such as Foreign Minister Phil Goff and Trade Minister Jim Sutton are driving that. But other ministers such as Paul Swain are also having an influence.
There is one over-riding issue, though: do the politicians on this side of the Ditch still have the foresight and guts to take the steps that really matter to ensure that business has a reason to thrive and exist here?
It's no mistake that Motorola last week jilted New Zealand for Australia's overtures. The Labour-Alliance Coalition has removed our competitive advantage by wiping the Employment Contracts Act, it reneged on an election promise to introduced tax write-offs for research and development and it refuses to lower New Zealand's corporate tax rate to either match or better the 30c in the dollar Australia is moving towards.
On top of that, the kiwi dollar is through the floor, some 40,000 New Zealanders are expected to shift to Australia before this year is through, and the Government is risking the wrath of Pakeha by introducing Treaty of Waitangi principles across a range of policy areas they do not understand.
Harmonisation of Australian and New Zealand business laws had been on the Closer Economic Relations agenda since 1988. There has been some progress on issues such as consumer protection and recognition of professional qualifications, but both countries still operate separate securities and company law regimes which are the key determinants of how business is played.
Increasing the driving force to speed the process is the transformation of New Zealand's largest company, Telecom, into a vigorous player in the Australian market. With Telecom now operating successfully on both sides of the Ditch, the push towards merging our stockmarkets and speeding the harmonisation of business laws is inevitable
New Zealand companies, such as Lion Nathan, which have shifted head office to Sydney are a recent chapter of the transtasman story; others included formerly New Zealand owned companies such as Bank of New Zealand, which passed into National Australia Bank hands, and TrustBank, which was tucked under the Westpac umbrella - both of which are effectively controlled from across the Tasman.
Business has also been driving the current push through the advancement of proposals such as a transtasman currency - another proposal which was swatted down by the politicians. But business has at least got a voice at the ministers' table on the current CER discussions - for the first time in the history of CER.
The discussions centre on wiping obstacles to transtasman business to achieve greater compatibility in disclosure regimes, manage cross-border insolvency, protect intellectual property rights and get greater consistency in legislation affecting e-commerce.
But the more fruitful talks centre on expanding CER into Southeast Asia - using the draft agreement New Zealand has struck with Singapore for a Closer Economic Partnership as a precursor. That agreement has the advantage of being both compatible with the WTO and Apec commitments to liberalise trade in goods and services by 2010.
The former Rogernomes are in the vanguard on the Singapore agreement and are driving the Australian angles. But the Prime Minister is still out on a limb of her own making.
Helen Clark has not adopted the language of the free-traders, preferring to quote the somewhat nebulous notion of fair trade. Having campaigned against the claimed ills of free-market regimes, she is now forced into getting Parliament to legitimise the forthcoming agreement with Singapore.
Chances are that if Helen Clark extended the right of legitimacy decisions to ordinary New Zealanders, they would vote for common citizenship with Australia as well. It's only a matter of time.
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