That video brings tears to the eyes, for New Zealanders of a certain age. A simpler, and a happier time - can it ever be that way again? While receiving “nga mihi nui” at the end of otherwise 100% English emails from all and sundry gets up my nose, I accept and am stirred by the Maori verses of our National Anthem. And even though “Aotearoa” does not make much sense as a name for the whole country for South Island Maori like me, I support the poetic licence in this case.
I doubt an outright merger with Oz would fly. However, there can be more cooperation across the board, maybe even an Asia-Pacific equivalent of the EU.
> There is nothing obviously wrong about this reasoning as reasoning.
There is in fact a lot wrong with his reasoning. He has a certain idea of how NZ should be run, but finding that it is not run that way, because he or others have not been able to convince voters that it should be, he sees another country run more how he likes and so decides if Kiwis wont agree with him then by simply handing over the decision-making to Australia the pesky NZ public is bypassed entirely.
He's just thought-experimenting a way to circumvent the popular will. There is something obviously wrong with that: it's anti-democratic!
> He is right that we lack military might. We always will.
And this is where I must disagree with you. There is no inherent reason why NZ should lack military might. Israel is a country not even double our size but with a military as capable—or even more so—than Australia's. It even has nuclear weapons! There is no particular reason why NZ couldn't have a military as capable as Australia's. It would cost a lot, but it isn't impossible. Why it doesn't exist is purely because voters don't see it as a priority.
If voters aren't doing what you want there are a lot of potential paths to remedying that, either by changing people's minds or by improving the electoral and/or parliamentary system. Abolishing the whole system in favour of being subsumed in some larger state that you happen to agree with isn't it. (And who's to say Kiwi voters, becoming one-sixth of Australia wouldn't vote to lower defence spending? The entire scheme could end up lowering the combined capability of both countries.)
Anyway, besides passionately supporting democracy, I actually do support a large jump in the capability of the NZ military. I'd like to see a doubling to be honest (in capability, not necessarily in spending—too often these are assumed to be interchangeable, but that's another story).
Yes And you nicely ignored the other obvious problem with the proposition- if the intent is logic - of all the places we love in all the world why Australia.
That video brings tears to the eyes, for New Zealanders of a certain age. A simpler, and a happier time - can it ever be that way again? While receiving “nga mihi nui” at the end of otherwise 100% English emails from all and sundry gets up my nose, I accept and am stirred by the Maori verses of our National Anthem. And even though “Aotearoa” does not make much sense as a name for the whole country for South Island Maori like me, I support the poetic licence in this case.
I doubt an outright merger with Oz would fly. However, there can be more cooperation across the board, maybe even an Asia-Pacific equivalent of the EU.
> There is nothing obviously wrong about this reasoning as reasoning.
There is in fact a lot wrong with his reasoning. He has a certain idea of how NZ should be run, but finding that it is not run that way, because he or others have not been able to convince voters that it should be, he sees another country run more how he likes and so decides if Kiwis wont agree with him then by simply handing over the decision-making to Australia the pesky NZ public is bypassed entirely.
He's just thought-experimenting a way to circumvent the popular will. There is something obviously wrong with that: it's anti-democratic!
> He is right that we lack military might. We always will.
And this is where I must disagree with you. There is no inherent reason why NZ should lack military might. Israel is a country not even double our size but with a military as capable—or even more so—than Australia's. It even has nuclear weapons! There is no particular reason why NZ couldn't have a military as capable as Australia's. It would cost a lot, but it isn't impossible. Why it doesn't exist is purely because voters don't see it as a priority.
If voters aren't doing what you want there are a lot of potential paths to remedying that, either by changing people's minds or by improving the electoral and/or parliamentary system. Abolishing the whole system in favour of being subsumed in some larger state that you happen to agree with isn't it. (And who's to say Kiwi voters, becoming one-sixth of Australia wouldn't vote to lower defence spending? The entire scheme could end up lowering the combined capability of both countries.)
Anyway, besides passionately supporting democracy, I actually do support a large jump in the capability of the NZ military. I'd like to see a doubling to be honest (in capability, not necessarily in spending—too often these are assumed to be interchangeable, but that's another story).
Yes And you nicely ignored the other obvious problem with the proposition- if the intent is logic - of all the places we love in all the world why Australia.