CANBERRA - New Zealand's defence relationship with Australia is still plagued by tensions despite moves to work more closely together and combined operations in regional crises, a study has found.
Behind official transtasman bonhomie, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute paper found lingering resentments over differing views of theworld, intelligence sharing, New Zealand's combat capabilities and equipment purchases.
The Anzus rift between Wellington and the United States also continues to affect the relationship, with policy-makers on both sides of the Tasman still struggling to deal with its aftermath, two decades on.
"It is apparent that we are still some way from reaching a new equilibrium," institute executive director Peter Abigail says in his introduction to the study.
"There are tensions that continue to haunt the relationships New Zealand has with both of its major security partners, but these should not preclude promising further defence co-operation between Australia and New Zealand."
The study, written for the institute by Jim Rolfe, a senior fellow at Wellington's Centre for Strategic Studies, concludes that despite a number of problems and deficiencies, the New Zealand Defence Force is in pretty good shape, with new capabilities and greater flexibility.
"Overall, the NZDF is as capable today as it has been in the past 30 years, and is as capable as it needs to be," Mr Rolfe says.
But he also says Canberra has strongly held and long-term doubts about NZ's commitment to and capacity for the two nations' defence.
The Anzus fallout continues, with New Zealand officials believing Canberra is happy to have Wellington out of the former three-nation pact so that Australia's voice in Washington is not diluted.
Many Australian commentators see New Zealand as a defence free-rider and irrelevant to Australia's security needs.
Mr Rolfe says that officially the relationship is described as good and very productive - but that "less than officially, but authoritatively, the attitude towards New Zealand has been described as 'bugger them'."
