22 February, 2002

Last night I was struck by a rather odd juxtaposition of television programmes that highlighted something about Australians and New Zealanders. I can’t remember which was first (they may have been on different channels) but the two programmes in question are: Australian Survivor and 60 minutes (or possibly 20/20, who can tell the difference).

The 60 minutes programme had an article about some Australian guy who had slagged off NZ in an article he’d written. Apparently many New Zealanders were offended and it had caused an uprising of sorts. He was hauled over to NZ where we…put him on TV trying to get him to apologise by touring him around the country. This was fairly weird by itself but there is also apparently great indignation amongst New Zealanders at a growing level of “racism” in Australia towards NZ. This racism is, by the way, in the form of jokes, inuendos about sheep etc. As a Kiwi I found this amusing because a) some of the jokes are funny and b) we give as good as we get…sometimes more so.

The second programme, Australian Survivor, was weird for a more personal reason. I’ve watched the American versions on and off and had a great time completely slagging off the contestants as being over-analytical wimps. I was ready for a good bit of Aussie bashing of a similar nature. I was frozen in my tracks while watching one of the contestants crawl out from under a tarpaulin and proclaim, “Jeez that was a cold one mate”. He was obviously refering to the rather cold night they’d just had…obvious to an Australian and a Kiwi. This weird feeling of familiarity was heightened as I watched them stand around a campfire holding their drinks and chatting quietly. It could happily have been a scene at any New Zealand campsite. It was also a bit concerning when some of them didn’t appear to have accents implying that it was very similar to my own.

All in all it was a great example of the similarities we share with Australia and also the insecurity New Zealand (in general) has in dealings with Australia. Could it be the equivalent of sibling rivalry?