UK historian urges against transtasman 'suicide of NZ'

Simon Schama said Britons lived for the moments when the All Blacks beat the Wallabies. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand should remain a sovereign nation to deny Australia "the kiwi and the juiciest spring lamb", says a British historian.

Simon Schama visited New Zealand last month as part of the International Arts Festival. During his stay he was asked about the merits of New Zealand becoming the seventh state of Australia in an interview with TVNZ.

"To actually trade in the distinctiveness of your shared memory because of what's perceived to be a difference in the standard of living, seems to me a sorry deal, it's Esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage. That's my uninformed message - don't do it Kiwis, just don't do it," Schama said.

Schama, the host of BBC programme A Point of View, has since penned a piece for the BBC news magazine entitled: Behold, Newstralia. It looks at the arguments for and against "the suicide of New Zealand".

"What - in the name of Edmund Hillary, the haka and all things Kiri te Kanawa - are they talking about? Don't they know that Poms live for the moments - and they happen all too infrequently - when the Aussies get shafted by the Men in Black?"

He also alluded to the continual political rhetoric of catching up to Australia.

"The reasons habitually given for this overture are, surprise, surprise economic and not without a steely logic. Over the past two decades, per capita incomes in the two countries on opposite sides of the Tasman Sea have been diverging with New Zealand on the short end of the trend."

But the lure of "gorgeous" Sydney is real to Schama, who dismisses Paris, London and New York for the sunny beaches and "creamily clad Opera House".

"And for a moment you say to yourself, well, all right, who wouldn't want to be along for that kind of thrilling Aussie ride into the Pacific-Asian future?

"But then you snap out of it."

Schama argues that making such a choice based on economics would be a mistake.

"Something deeper and sadder is lurking here: the embarrassment of smallness."

Schama reminds readers of New Zealand's world firsts - granting women the vote, paying old age pensions and the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal.

"Of course there have been serious problems of unequal social opportunity, of street gangs. But if there is anywhere in the post-colonial world where two cultural worlds truly live an engaged life alongside each other, it's in New Zealand.

"Such stories don't come along very often. Cherish them. Chant them. Dance them.

"Upane upane, kaupane, whiti te ra! Up the ladder, up the ladder, the Sun Shines," Schama writes, quoting the line from the Ka Mate, Ka Mate haka.

Former Warriors captain Steve Price also made mention of the debate when he announced his retirement from the NRL earlier this month.

"We have got a pretty good rivalry but we have been to plenty of wars together, we have very good camaraderie through the Anzacs and we are a long, long way away from everybody else so we have to stick together and beat up everybody else," he said.

"There are a lot of Kiwis in Australia and there are a few more Aussies coming over to New Zealand now. I don't know whether New Zealand will be a state of Australia one day but we are certainly at a stage where we are very, very close and I think we both have a respect for each other that is quite high."

- NZHERALD STAFF