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Quarterly Essay 80: The High Road

What Australia Can Learn from New Zealand

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Quarterly Essay 80: The High Road

By: Laura Tingle
Narrated by: Aimee Horne
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About this listen

Australia and New Zealand are often considered close cousins. But why, despite being so close, do we know so little about each other? And is there such a thing as national character?

In this wise and illuminating essay, Laura Tingle looks at leadership, economics, history and more. Competitiveness has marked our relationship from its earliest days. In the past half-century, both countries have remade themselves amid shifting economic fortunes. New Zealand has been held up as a model for everything from tax reform to the conduct of politics to the response to COVID-19. Tingle considers everything from Morrison and Ardern as national leaders to the different ways each country has dealt with its colonial legacy. What could Australia learn from New Zealand? And New Zealand from Australia?

This is a perceptive, often amusing, introduction to two countries alike in some ways, but quite different in others.

©2020 Laura Tingle (P)2020 Audible Australia Pty Ltd. Australia & Oceania Australia, New Zealand & Oceania Oceania Politics & Government World Inspiring Capitalism Taxation Socialism
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Very interesting comparison between Australia & New Zealand. Well written by Laura & well narrated by Aimee.

Quarterly Essay 80 The High Road

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Loved it!! Well researched and greatly educational. I've learnt a lot thanks. Keep the divine.

Awesome podcast

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Great journey through our shared & divergent histories. Excellent reading at a time when these stories deserve the greatest study & comparison.

Splendid & Timely

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For anyone wanting to dissect the NZ and Australian relationship, or maybe just navel gaze for a while and consider why you moved to Australia at all.
My only grief with this essay is that the audible narrator doesn’t know how to pronounce Lange (pronounced Long-ee). That was a huge cringe factor.

Excellent summary

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Well researched, excellent and interesting analysis. very enjoyable with excellent narration. Well worth listening to.

Very enjoyable for a policy and political wonk...

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As a kiwi who now lives in Western Australia, this was a fantastic recap of a lot of what I’ve seen/ experienced in my lifetime as it covered a lot of what happened politically and economically from the 70s when I was born.
It also was a great way of filling in some of the gaps I’d missed especially about Australia.
It gave me lots to think about which is always a good thing!

Really enjoyed

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I very much enjoyed this essay. Helpful to fill in the missing puzzle pieces about contemporary Zealand and her political economy.

A potted modern Antipodean history

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Excellent summary of NZ and Australian political landscape. Interesting history too. Recommend to all people.

Excellent

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This was a fascinating and well crafted essay, and read beautifully...but unfortunately really undercut by the mispronunciation of David Lange's name which was jarring and incredibly ironic given the overall message as he was such an integral figure. l'm sure this work will stand the test if time, but with a partial record or disclaimer.

Great, but shame about Long-ee

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This was very interesting and informative. Well worth the listen/ read. The performance was also good, overall. I have marked the performance down slightly because of the annoying mispronunciations, including David Lange’s surname. I suspect these are not AH’s fault but it was a continual distraction.

A very interesting analysis and historical review

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