Canberra: Australia and New Zealand have been urged to put national rivalries aside and form a single nation. A cross-party committee of Australian lawmakers said in a report that the Tasman Sea neighbours should consider legal and monetary union with a view to eventually becoming one country.
But New Zealand, one of the seven British colonies of Australasia until 1901 when Australia became an independent nation, ruled out rejoining the Australian fold.
"It won't be on our agenda 105 years later," New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday when asked about the Australian report.
Australia and New Zealand already have close economic links and citizens can move freely between each country without visas, but New Zealand's 4 million people have regularly rejected suggestions of a merger with Australia's 20 million population. The idea of a union re-surfaced after the Australian government began inquiry into ways to align their legal systems.
