NZ Minister calls for passport-free travel for Australians and New Zealanders crossing the Tasman

A NEW Zealand Minister has invoked the ‘Anzac spirit’ to call for passport-free travel for Australians and New Zealanders crossing the ditch.

JULY 29, 2002 : New Zealand PM Helen Clark shaking hands with United Future Party leader Peter Dunne before their 29/07/02 post-election meeting at Parliament. Pic Mark Mitchell. Election

A NEW ZEALAND minister has urged Tony Abbott to scrap passports for New Zealanders and Australians crossing the ditch in a bid to bolster relations between the two nations.

As the Anzac spirit is invoked this weekend, Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne suggested marking the occasion by reinvigorating the Australia-New Zealand relationship.

“A practical starting point would be to allow our respective citizens free movement across our borders, without the need for a passport, as is increasingly the case in Europe,” he said.

“The spectacular memorial gift to grace Wellington’s Pukeahu park is one thing but, Mr Abbott, a move on passports would be a much more enduring recognition of the bond we say we forged at Gallipoli.”

Leaders ... Australian PM Tony Abbott and NZ PM John Key (right) at a press conference at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington. Picture: Courtesy of the Prime Minister's Office

In his pre-Anzac Day statement, Mr Dunne said the trans-Tasman relationship is “more akin to that of the distant cousin, rather than the close sibling we like to portray it as”.

Since New Zealand rejected the invitation to join the Commonwealth of Australia at the time of federation in 1901, there have been attempts to reinvigorate the relationship, most notably the Closer Economic Relations agreement of 1983, the United Future party leader says.

Anzac visit ... John Key and Tony Abbott inspect the guard of honour during a dedication to the Australia ANZAC memorial at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington. Picture: AFP

“But benign neglect has been the more general characteristic,” he said.

“And in such interactions as occur, the presumption is always of New Zealand being not quite on a par with New South Wales, rather than as an equal sovereign nation.

“The nadir most surely aside from the infamous underarm incident must have been the Keating government’s decision via a curt late night fax in the early 1990s to terminate consideration of a single aviation market.”

Mr Dunne says there are arguably no more similar peoples on earth than Australians and New Zealanders, who “genuinely like each other” despite all the rivalries.

Originally published as NZ Minister calls for passport-free travel for Australians and New Zealanders crossing the Tasman