(09-28-2022 05:27 PM)CardinalJim Wrote: Jacinda Ardern represents a country with more sheep than people lol… (an Aussie Kiwi joke)
When I lived in Brisbane, I met a lot of Kiwis. They are great people. The truth is, except for Christchurch, most of the rest of the country is rural and they don’t have internet anyway.
From what I learned drinking beer every night with them is New Zealand is really really liberal. Their “Centre Right” Parties (National and ACT) would be Left of Bernie Sanders here in the US.
I doubt Kiwis think twice about this proposal.
Auckland, and probably Wellington, are more urban also, but the vast majority of New Zealand is extremely rural. I liken driving around NZ to hopping in the back of my parents' station wagon in the 1950s and taking a road trip across the rural southern USA. But the political views are vastly different from that.
A lot comes from sharing with Australia, only more so, what has been called the "tallest daisy" syndrome--nobody should be allowed to become more wealthy than anyone else, and any daisy that does grow taller must be chopped down to size. Australia does have at least some successful capitalists. NZ has virtually none.
Australia is incredibly laid-back. Nobody sweats anything, but remarkably everything works. When a local in some third-world country says, "No problem, Joe," you can count on problems. When an Aussie says, "No worries, mate," stop worrying. Somehow it will all go right. Kiwis think the Aussies are hyper.
Aussies and Texans typically get on well, so we have a lot of them here. A client had an Aussie manager who went to lunch with us one day. Somebody asked him, "Clive, do the Aussies have a word for manana?" To which he replied, "Nope. Afraid we never get that intense."