Today's publication of research by the UMR polling firm showing that around 40 percent of Kiwis think we should get into bed with the Aussies and become their seventh state is not a surprising result. After all, the Nats have been talking up the prospects of us economically catching Australia by 2025 and with more Kiwis (like my own family) having headed over the ditch, it appears that some New Zealanders want to have the cake and eat it now rather than wait.

What hasn't been emphasised is that the research also showed that 58 percent of Kiwis don't want to even contemplate a union, at least one in which the Aussies will rule. If we did take up the long standing invite written into the Australian Constitution to join up with our bigger neighbour, then we would be economically, socially, politically and culturally swallowed whole.

To paraphrase that famous Australian painter and singer Rolf Harris, let's not tie me Kangaroo down sport. Politically hopping into bed with them would see the civil union-style status of our current Closer Economic Relations (CER) agreement upgraded to a full blown marriage. And that would be going one step too far.

However, some of my comrades on the Left would make the case that bringing two nations together would serve to further diminish the class driven economic competition between our two countries and further solidify Trans-Tasman class solidarity. The Marxist strand on the left would also point out that internationalism should eventually transcend the notion of nation-statism which seeks to divide workers along national lines.

At the moment, nation-statism is where it's at. Many on the broad left (like me) would be  more concerned about the loss of economic, social and political sovereignty. While some would argue (and rightly so) that we already have surrendered some of our sovereignty due to the fact that, for example, most of our commercial banks are Australian owned and some of our laws are aligned with those of Australia, going the whole hog could be damaging.

One of the key arguments in this respect is that the unitary currency would in reality be the Australian dollar. Hence, Canberra would be the arbiter of monetary policy, not Wellington. This could be damaging to our exporters due to the fact that if, for example,  the post-union Australasian dollar appreciated due to an ongoing minerals boom while agricultural commodity prices fell (as was the case until 2008), then this would favour Australia and disadvantage New Zealand.

There are the cultural arguments too. Over the last one hundred years as both our countries have severed their ties with the United Kingdom, we have forged distinct political, cultural and social identities. Who would want to go back to FPP voting in elections as that is preferential voting (the Australian system) literally is. Who would want to cheer the Wallabies and not our dear old All Blacks? We speak completely different dialects (but as with the Canadians and Americans, people overseas sometimes can't distinguish between the two). Our cultural and literary histories, while somewhat similar, are also distinct. And there is the issue of our having the Treaty of Waitangi, a document describing the ideal of a partnership between Maori and the Crown in this country. By contrast, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia look at us with envy as the Aboriginal populations were not granted legal rights until at least fairly recently. Furthermore, the status of Maori compares favourably to that of Aboriginal peoples who have suffered grave social and economic deprivation for almost three centuries of European settlement.  At least here in Aotearoa, if nothing else, we have acknowledged the grievances of our indigenous people, something the Australians have never done (except for the apology to the Stolen Generations).

Yes, I can hear some of you say that there are many similarities and much convergence between our two nations. Many of our major code sporting teams already play in Australasian leagues, we commonly celebrate our shared role in wartime on Anzac Day, there are nearly 400,000 Kiwis in Australia and nearly 50,000 Aussies who live here. We share some pop culture icons like Russell Crowe and we have traded in our fair share of prime ministers too as Michael Joseph Savage was an Australian and Chris Watson (Labor's second Australian prime minister) spent time in New Zealand. And as I remember from my first trip to Aussie last Christmas we New Zealanders have a special customs queue (and vice versa for Australians coming here).

Despite these convergences, we are what Canada is to America - a little brother, proud of our independence but yet one which acknowledges a common familial bond. And that's the way it should stay.