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Is There Still an NZ in ANZAC – And Does New Zealand Matter Anyway?

30 Apr 2015
HE Chris Seed
ANZAC Cove. Image Credit: Flickr (Seb Ruiz) Creative Commons.

Ensuring that the Trans-Trasman relationship continues to deliver for both sides of The Ditch is the ultimate tribute to the sacrifice we commemorate this year during the ANZAC centenary, according to New Zealand High Commissioner to Australia Chris Seed.

This year, considerable homage is rightly being paid to the ANZAC legacy.

Australia has been scrupulous in acknowledging the “NZ” in ANZAC, supported by public sentiment. The Lowy Institute’s poll has consistently ranked New Zealand as the country most warmly regarded by Australians.

But sentiment alone doesn’t pay the bills. The case keeps needing to be made about how the relationship is delivering for both countries.

Surveying the relationship today

At the rawest level, the importance of the relationship is illustrated by the intensity of ministerial engagement – more than six Prime Ministerial and thirty other ministerial exchanges in the last six months, not to mention other meetings at APEC, the EAS or on ANZAC Day itself or regular ministerial interactions by phone or SMS.

It’s also evident from the issues on the agenda – from the fight against Dae’sh to regional trade cooperation; the Pacific Islands Forum to the alignment of our qualifications frameworks.

This all speaks to a relationship in which both countries are heavily invested.

The New Zealand story

New Zealand’s investment is obvious. On almost any metric Australia matters to us more than any other partner.

While China is now our largest goods market, Australia remains our number one economic partner. In addition to our trade ($24 billion) Australia accounts for almost half of our visitors and owns nearly all of our banks and media.

Australia is also our indispensable ally and security partner.

The ANZAC legacy is central to this, but our cooperation goes much broader and deeper. Whether it’s Australian police in post-earthquake Christchurch or kiwi firefighters battling bushfires in Victoria, we’ve been each other’s first port of call – and the first to offer assistance.

Our cooperation is so instinctive that it’s easy to forget we’re talking about two separate countries. We have distinct identities and often different approaches, but share enduring values that are fundamentally aligned.

A/NZ in the World

On the world stage our cooperation is often most evident.

Our defence relationship provides a material example. In the past century our defence forces have served alongside one another on nearly every continent, including Afghanistan and our current deployment to Iraq.

Our cooperation in the Pacific was most recently demonstrated in the response to Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu. This was a massive operation involving military assets, humanitarian assistance and officials from a range of agencies, deployed almost immediately.

Other examples include our administration of one another’s aid programmes in the Cook Islands and Nauru or joint operations such as RAMSI and East Timor.

We’ve both played leading roles on trade liberalisation. And our negotiating cooperation continues to serve us well in regional trade initiatives.

Our government agencies all collaborate extensively and New Zealand is even represented in an observer capacity at COAG. McKinsey recently ranked our connectedness ahead of all other international relationships.

The question therefore is what’s in it for Australia. We think quite a lot.

The NZ value proposition

Economically, we’re Australia’s sixth largest trading partner and fifth largest export market. More than 17,000 Australian businesses export to New Zealand compared to only 5,000 exporting to China. New Zealand is an important market for higher cost industries like manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, IT and services.

In the last two years, Australian service exports to New Zealand grew by more than 8 per cent with telecommunications and financial services up by 30 per cent and 82 per cent respectively. We’re also easily each other’s largest source of tourists.

New Zealand is now the third largest destination for Australian ODI – $81 billion in 2013. And with $30 billion invested here, we’re your ninth largest source of FDI.

This means New Zealand underpins a lot of Australian jobs.

The 550,000 New Zealand-born people in Australia may seem like a lot, but it’s proportionate to the 75,000 Australian-born people in New Zealand, meaning we each constitute roughly 2 per cent of each other’s population. And since 2012, Australian migration to New Zealand is now up by 50 per cent, meaning that the automatic stabilisers of our integrated economies are working.

New Zealand also adds value outside of economics.

We’re trusted, inter-operable security partners and force multipliers. Our naval vessels have been used as substitutes and supplements for Australian deployments and have even patrolled Australian waters; RNZAF aircraft are routinely used for Australian tasks and, following New Zealand’s army restructure, we’ll supplement Australia’s brigades with a fourth of similar fit and structure.

In 2014, more than 1000 defence personnel travelled across the Tasman. More than 80 NZDF personnel members are posted here, either embedded or training. One in four are instructors, demonstrating that New Zealand is also delivering value to the ADF and international students.

Staying Relevant

So what’s the agenda going forward?

Our challenge is to put our uniquely integrated relationship to use in improving our competitiveness, attracting investment and properly establishing ourselves in value chain architecture. As relatively small, open, capital importing economies, we can each boast impressive businesses, but neither of us has enough scale to properly compete in global value chains.

That is why we’ve pushed to establish a single patent regulator; why our industries receive equal treatment from support initiatives like Wine Equalisation Taxes and why we’re pleased Australia is considering mutual recognition of dividend imputation – removing one of the last barriers to free capital movement.

It’s not sexy or politically easy stuff. Other countries can’t do it. But that’s what gives us our edge internationally.

The benefits of this relationship are not just economic.

Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable to imagine New Zealand following Australia to consecutive terms on the UN Security Council. Our recent success shows that we’ve been able to forge distinct but complementary identities, enabling us to transcend our individual reach.

The Trans-Tasman relationship is the product of persistent and pragmatic effort over many years from both Australia and New Zealand. Ensuring that our “project” continues to deliver for both sides of The Ditch is the ultimate tribute to the sacrifice and mateship we commemorate this year.

HE Chris Seed is the New Zealand High Commissioner to Australia. The AIIA ACT Branch hosted a speech by HE Chris Seed on 22 April 2015. This article can be republished with attribution under a Creative Commons Licence.