What If Australia Invaded New Zealand?

New Zealand. A beautiful country comprised of two main islands in the pacific. New Zealand has seldom seen conflict on its own shores, but what if a country set its sights on the remote lands? Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions. I am your host, Rebecca Felgate and today I am asking What if Australia Invaded New Zealand? Strewth! Before we sail on into this video, I just want to ask you what the furthest you have ever been on a plane is? For me I think it was 23 hours to Perth in Australia, but I did have two stop overs. Also, why you are down there, why don’t you hit that thumbs up button and click that notification bell to stay up to date with big answers. So lets imagine a future wherein somehow Australia has gone all crazy and power hungry and wants to start annexing land to get a roll on that civilisation building. Firstly, I have to speculate here, but surely of this were to ever happen it would be very very far in the future? Australia is huge…. 7.962 million square kilometres to be precise, the 6th biggest country in the world. Sure, some of their land is seemingly inhabitable, and perhaps New Zealand would look pretty attractive as an overseas annex because of all that delicious coastline and good living conditions they enjoy. At the moment though, there is plenty of space to house the 24 million Australian nationals and plenty of room to grow. Maybe space wouldn’t be the motivation, though…. Russia annexed Crimea, a part of the Ukraine as a power show. It already has more landmass than any other country in the world. Maybe the Prime Minister, Malcom Turnbull would go rogue… or maybe a new leader with a game plan would make the power play. Both Australia and New Zealand have been reasonably passive in terms of recent world-wide aggression, although both did participate on a small level in key wars such as world war one, two and the Vietnam, war. Australia is much bigger than New Zealand, which has a population of 4.7 million. In theory a bigger nation should be able to trounce a smaller, but in actuality it doesn’t always work that way. Let’s compare the countries military stats…. So Australia has an active military of 80 thousand full time personnel and active reservists, whereas New Zealand has 11 thousand. Australia also by far beats New Zealand with its aircraft strength and naval assets. Australia has 469 total aircraft, New Zealand has 50. Australia has 47 Naval Assets, New Zealand has 11. Even though New Zealand is very defendable, if it was the two countries fighting it out alone, in a numbers game, Australia would win. Of course this would mean an end to the australian new zealand army corps as allies turn enemies...which would be the crying shame here, as the two nations share a bond. Neither New Zealand or Australia have any nuclear weapons or much in the way of fire power, so if Australia were to invade it would likely be a naval operation, alongside a ground attack force. Of course, in traditional warfare, a successful invasion means capturing the capital city. With New Zealand, this is actually pretty tricky – the Capital of Wellington is quite defendable – and invasion would be tricky along the naval passage between the North and South Island and the fighting would largely take place along the cook strait, Fitzroy bay and Wellington harbour. Again, Australia has the better naval assets, but it depends who else was drawn into the fray. Firstly, it would be very interesting to see where Great Britain stood – both New Zealand and Australia are former colonies and current members of the common wealth. The Queen is the head of state in both lands – if she was still alive when this invasion took place, I am sure she would try to talk some sense into the Australian’s. Perhaps Britain would intervene, or perhaps they would stay out of it – but when one first world nation invades another, Nato has something to say about it. Neither Australia or New Zealand are members, but they are considered Partners Across the Globe – what jurisdiction Nato would have in Oceania, I don’t know, but the political super powers across the globe would want and end to any aggression. The United States may have strong opinions – if Australia could successfully invade New Zealand, what about nearish by Hawaii? Would Australia by eyeing up Papua and Papua New Guinea? What About Timo-Leste and the Banda arc? Australia may well need to be stopped, which would bring conflict to an area that has never seen the effects of modern day warfare. It would be a grave day indeed. On a less grand level, it wouldn’t make any sense for the two nations to fight – they currently enjoy great trade relations and are bound by migration. Culturally, the share a bond – bound by being two British speaking nations on the other side of the world, if you will. The two countries have fought small scale wars many hundreds of years ago, but to no avail. While they may have a sibling rivalry, the two countries, once joined by land 80 million years ago, know that they’re better together. The only war this pair fights is those that happen a handful of times a year. They’re called Rugby. And the people love it. So, that is what would happen if Australia invaded New Zealand, but unless something went really and truly wrong, it will never happen. The two are like peas and carrots. Peace time is the best time. So guys, what do you think? Do you agree with me? Any Kiwis or Aussies watching? How you doing over there? To the rest of you, what video shall we make next here on LBQ. If you liked this video, why not hit that thumbs up button and click on the notification bell to stay up to date with big answers. I am your host Rebecca Felgate, I’ll catch you in the next video, but until then….stay curious, stay alert and never ever stop questioning.