Think tank calls for Aus-NZ merger

Stephen Grenville of the Lowy Institute, a foreign policy think tank, has suggested that Australia should “get together with New Zealand to make one country with 28 million people.” He cites economic benefits and the compatibility of the two countries’ political cultures and legal systems, and suggests that a shared currency would be a good starting point. Proposals to include New Zealand as a State in Australia’s federation have a long history. It has the same status as Western Australia in the preamble to the Constitution: neither is mentioned in the first recital, but both are included as possible States in paragraph 6.