People Are Actually Calling For Australia And NZ To Merge Just So Jacinda Ardern Can Rule Us All

Russell Crowe has used his 2.7 million-strong Twitter following to call for Australia and New Zealand to merge into one country for one reason only: so that New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern can rule us all.

“Look… just accept it… she’s awesome,” the New Zealand citizen tweeted.

Look… just accept it… she’s awesome. Is it time to make Australia and New Zealand into one country with @jacindaardern as PM ?
Not trying to be controversial … just practical. https://t.co/YOdIyhL3wR

— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) September 29, 2018

Even a local councillor from Sydney supported the idea.

It is past time, we will all support this idea. https://t.co/6CFcgO5ya1

— Michele McKenzie (@MColvinMcKenzie) October 1, 2018

Others suggested a merge between the two countries would mean the end of Australian rugby, and, some excitedly thought, the end of prime minister Scott Morrison’s tenure.

The calls come after Ardern wooed global leaders at the United Nations in New York this week. Her baby Neve joined her on the chamber floor at one point, and she enjoyed a warm reception from crowd and media alike when she appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Bizarrely, there’s a long history of proposals to include New Zealand as a state of Australia. In 2015, Liberal senator Ian Macdonald jokingly suggested that the country’s north and south island’s becoming two new Australian states.

Back in 1788, when Arthur Phillip was governor of NSW, he declared that New Zealand was part of his own state. That didn’t work out.

And when Australia was forming its constitution and thinking about becoming a single, united country, New Zealand was tempted to join but ultimately resisted because they were worried about Australia being too racist.

In 2006 an Australian parliamentary committee recommended that a “full union” between the two countries be reached.

It’s one of a few odd secession/accession controversies in Australia: back in the 1930s, Western Australia voted in favour of leaving the country and becoming their own nation but was stopped by the Commonwealth.

More recently, there’s been a slightly serious, slightly humorous push to revisit the issue.