During the 1970s the Whitlam government in Australia and the Kirk government in New Zealand each adopted a policy of new nationalism in an attempt to come to terms with a rapidly changing and increasingly decolonised world marked by the decline of Britain as an economic and military force in the world. In each case this new nationalism prioritised local and national identities over a larger pan‐British identity. Both governments were more inward‐looking and yet also more engaged with the Asia‐Pacific region than their predecessors. They promoted their own national distinctiveness and independence, while also forging closer relationships with each other and the wider region. Both embraced a new understanding of their geographic position and repudiated the idea that Australia and New Zealand were European nations on the edge of Asia. The nationalisms they promoted were remarkably similar, yet there are important differences that reflect their different ethnic makeup and geographic position.

This thesis analyses the nationalist rhetoric of successive Australian and New Zealand governments over the twentieth century. It uses political rhetoric to analyse the way that ideas about race, Empire and geopolitical identities were invoked, transformed and discarded in Australia and New Zealand. Each chapter in this thesis is a case study of an event that caused the two governments to articulate visions of Australia and New Zealand and their place in the responses to a range of issues -to become even more pronounced. At the same time, an analysis of political rhetoric in the two countries points to important ongoing similarities that iii reflect the fact that governments on both sides of the Tasman were affected by similar processes and concerned with similar issues. They were both coming to terms with Britain's decline and developing post-British national identities that addressed the myriad challenges the two countries faced.iv

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Until the 1960s, the Australian and New Zealand governments were firmly committed to the British Empire and they framed their countries as British nations on the edge of Asia and the Pacific. Britain’s first attempt to join the European Economic Community in 1961, and its withdrawal of the vast majority of its military forces from the Asia–Pacific region in 1968, signalled the extent of its decline as a global power. Britain’s decline profoundly challenged the governments of Australia and New Zealand because this threatened the British settler-nationalism that predominated in each country, which were dependent on British economic and military strength. This development had the potential to radically alter the world-views of the government and cause them to reconsider the way they defined their nations and the policies they used to ensure their economic and military survival. This article will analyse the two governments’ responses to these events and consider how this affected political rhetoric in Australia and New Zealand and the extent to which it caused them to redefine their geopolitical understandings of the nation.