“Our founders could not have imagined the extraordinary events that would bring our nations far closer than any words or any laws. Not forged in meeting rooms by old men wearing suits, but by young men in trenches wearing slouch hats and lemon squeezers.

“That is why I say Australia has many alliances and friendships around the world, economic and defence partnerships of every kind – but New Zealand alone is family.”

– Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, February 16, 2011

Until her visit to New Zealand last month, I had always thought of Aussie Prime Minister Julia Gillard as that woman with the screechy voice.

The speech she gave to the New Zealand Parliament left me gobsmacked. According to the NZ Herald, grown men were reduced to tears. Quite extraordinary and completely unexpected. I now view her in an entirely different light (or at least, her speech writer!)

It was extraordinary for two reasons.

Firstly, seldom these days do you hear great speech making – that which takes us beyond our immediate focus and lets us see ourselves in a new light, that lets us see the possibilities beyond the horizon that inspire, uplift and bring us together.

I collect great speeches. I have a drawer full of them – the Sermon on the Mount, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Martin Luther King Junior’s “dream,” Winston Churchill’s “blood, sweat and tears.” I like to re-read them occasionally to remind me of just what we have lost in these days of Facebook, tweeting and texting.

Secondly, Julia Gillard is absolutely right.

We spend much of our lives trying to distance ourselves from our Aussie neighbours. We play up the sports rivalry, we resent all those Aussie banks that run our country, we don’t like being the “little brother.”

When an Australian newspaper described the All Whites as an “Australasian” team after their stunning World Cup soccer draw with Slovakia, we nearly had a fit. “How dare they!” we said, even though the headline was clearly tongue in cheek. We should have been flattered.

The simple fact is Australia and New Zealand have a relationship that is unique in world history.

No two countries have ever enjoyed a relationship closer than the two Tasman neighbours. We have stood united through two major wars and numerous small ones, we have always been there for each other, our economies are intertwined, our sports teams play in the same leagues, we speak the same language, worship the same God, share a common heritage. We Baptists even gave our Aussie counterparts our National Leader at the time – Brian Winslade!

All families have squabbles and tire of each other’s company. The Tasman family is no different. But the key word, as Julia Gillard rightly noted, is “family.”

Australians know that when the chips are down and their young men and women once again have to put themselves in harm’s way to defend freedom and justice, our young men and women will be right where they always are. By their side.

So let’s celebrate family. If you see an Aussie today, give him or her a hug and tell them: “God loves you, and so do we!”

– Duncan Pardon