Barnaby Joyce backs calls for New Zealand to join Australia

Former Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is pointing the finger at NZ for potential union. Photo / Getty Images

An Australian politician has backed a retiring Labour MP’s call for New Zealand to renounce its sovereignty and join Australia as its seventh state, touting the potential sporting benefits of the union.

Noted former New Zealand citizen Barnaby Joyce made the comments to Channel 9′s Today programme after retiring Labour MP Jamie Strange suggested that NZ make the move.

“We could help them out with the cricket. They can help us out with rugby,” Joyce said, noting that he did not think the proposal would have popular appeal in Aotearoa.

“Defence policy, monetary policy,” Joyce said, listing potential benefits. “We might even win a rugby game.

“Logically, why have we got two defence forces, two different monetary policies?” he asked.

“It was supposed to happen,” he said, referencing previous moves to admit New Zealand.

“We can bring them in without a referendum. It is part of the constitution.”

Former Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is pointing the finger at NZ for potential union. Photo / Getty Images

Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie also appeared to back the change, saying it would be of “massive benefit” to her home state of Tasmania.

“We can stop doing the heavy lifting for you mainlanders,” she joked, saying that New Zealand could “swing in from the flanks”.

Labour MP says ‘NZ might get Aldi’

Retiring Labour MP Jamie Strange thinks we should consider the move - and gave unusual reasons why Kiwis should back seceding our sovereignty.

In his valedictory speech last week, the MP for Hamilton East shared his thoughts.

“Every time I visit Australia, I often ponder the thought, ‘Will we ever become one country, Australia and New Zealand?’.

“My personal view – and it’s only a personal view – is that New Zealanders shouldn’t rule that out.”

He then outlined one potential improvement that joining Australia would bring. We might get supermarket chain Aldi.

“There would certainly be economic benefits, economies of scale in the private and public sector, opening Aldi stores on our shores,” Strange claimed.

He then noted that the Australian constitution still technically allows for New Zealand to join that country, before highlighting one potential pitfall.

“The main problem I foresee though is: how do we integrate the Australian cricket team? But we conquered Everest, so you never know.”

These Strange musings made headlines across the Tasman, where the ABC, Guardian Australia and Daily Mail Australia covered the issue.

The ABC even invited him to a national breakfast radio show, where he said a recent visit to Australia to play a Parliamentary football match had got him thinking.

“I’ve often thought, ‘why aren’t we one country’?”

“We’re so closely aligned in so many ways.”

He repeated his claims that economies of scale could benefit NZ, before adding that our two nations shared values.

Strange admitted he raised the prospect somewhat “in jest” and questioned if there was any public appetite for the move.

But he did agree with the host’s suggestion that a single currency could be a way forward, describing it as a small step and saying recent moves to ease Kiwis’ road to Australian citizenship showed we were “creeping towards” closer relations.

“A common currency could be another step on that journey.”