[Dave26006]

I think the competition between the two countries has a lot to do with our relative isolation form the rest fo the world. New Zealand and Australia are the only countries in the south Pacific with white ethnic majorities. People of European descent in each country have the same ethnic background, and there is a feeling that people in other countries can’t tell us apart. We try to emphasize our differences through sport and other ‘friendly’ rivalries. New Zealand has remained closer to Britain than Australia, and for the first half of the 20th century we considered ourselves more ‘British’ than the Australians. I don’t think that worried them very much, but we were keen to show we are not the same.

The other point that probably bothers New Zealander is that our country is small and relatively unimportant on the world stage. Australia is much larger and is a world power (albeit not on the smae scale as the US, UK, Germany, China etc). They put a great deal of money and planning into develpoping good athletes, and New Zealanders feel we are overshadowed by Australia.

The historical background to this is that New Zealand was originally a colony of Britain administered from Sydney. The Australian constitution still makes provision for New Zealand to join it as its eighth state! By the way, New Zealand is 4,000 kilometers from Australia. That’s about the same distance as London is from Moscow.

User Detail :  

Name : Dave26006, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 32, City : Upper Hutt, State : NA, Country : New Zealand, Occupation : Government adviser, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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