Meeting in the Middle

Abstract

Over the last two decades Australia and New Zealand have become similar again, mirroring the closeness they shared when they first instituted social protection regimes a century ago. Their current closeness, however, is based on very different regimes to those they began with 130 years ago. Differences remain between them despite the re-convergence. Comparative accounts which cover the two regimes for the entire period since the mid-1990s are few, but those that exist tend to come from either the employment relations or the social policy perspective. Countering the increasing consensus that the re-convergence has been due mainly to material interests acting within the increasingly globalised economy, this chapter argues that traditional institutions have been most important.