Challenge: The ANZAC junta

"ANZAC" is NOT a term that should be used to collectively refer to Australia and New Zealand... unless both countries were unified under a military junta...

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to bring this about by the present day with a POD no earlier than the federation of Australia. New Zealand cannot be one of the original states. Notice that it's "unified under", not by, "a military junta".
 
WWII could see such a union thanks to Japanese threats of attack & invasion. Similarly the post WWII saw a co-ordinated foreign policy between the two countries, for a few years, with intentions of carving out a South Pacific Empire between the two nations to the effect that even the USA was told to clear off out of the region.
 
Perhaps a far left wing New Zealand, and a very unpopular right wing government of Australia.

Have the Anzac armies left leaning, and launch a coup against the Australian Government during the interwar years. Even better, during WW1?

A couple of other ideas- Marxist unionists overthrow New Zealand's government between 1912-1913. As a result relations between the UK and NZ become very tense, massive reforms in NZ are blocked almost every time by the imperial parliament, but they are carried out and passed into law anyway. To allow these reforms to continue, the judiciary is essentially purged of pro-Imperial judges.

Australia becomes very tense as it's own unionists start to follow their peers in New Zealand. A very unpopular Fisher government collapses as civil disorder spreads (unlikely I know). A more right wing government comes to power. In effort to quell the civil disorder they decide to ship out as many "trouble-makers" (unionists) to war, or put them in prisons, then into camps as the prisons fill up.

New Zealand refuses to send troops to war, but eventually capitulates, and decides to send a token force. A home guard is set up to replace the armed forces overseas as the Army at that stage is not trusted. Around this time the first ANZAC is formed. Leftist Australian troops help convince the kiwis that their cause is best.

After the war, and the horrific losses, the governments of both Australia and New Zealand are very weak. They are blown away in elections. New Zealand becomes more centrist, Australia more leftist. The Australian government is eventually dominated by ex-Soldiers and union leaders. It evolves into an Anti-British military government as civil liberties and imperial powers are discarded.

When the Military government actually becomes formal New Zealand, now much more moderate faces a return to the unrest when the unionists first took power. The different factions of the armed forces and unionists clash. Australia lends a great deal of (mostly political) support to the leftist sides, and eventually the NZ government is toppled and replaced with a pro-Australian ANZAC led government that surrenders power to Sydney.

Mostly fantasy I know. Any thoughts?
(Im a little sketchy on the Aussie politics, when were the unions most militant?)
 
Perhaps a far left wing New Zealand, and a very unpopular right wing government of Australia.

Have the Anzac armies left leaning, and launch a coup against the Australian Government during the interwar years. Even better, during WW1?

A couple of other ideas- Marxist unionists overthrow New Zealand's government between 1912-1913. As a result relations between the UK and NZ become very tense, massive reforms in NZ are blocked almost every time by the imperial parliament, but they are carried out and passed into law anyway. To allow these reforms to continue, the judiciary is essentially purged of pro-Imperial judges.

Australia becomes very tense as it's own unionists start to follow their peers in New Zealand. A very unpopular Fisher government collapses as civil disorder spreads (unlikely I know). A more right wing government comes to power. In effort to quell the civil disorder they decide to ship out as many "trouble-makers" (unionists) to war, or put them in prisons, then into camps as the prisons fill up.

New Zealand refuses to send troops to war, but eventually capitulates, and decides to send a token force. A home guard is set up to replace the armed forces overseas as the Army at that stage is not trusted. Around this time the first ANZAC is formed. Leftist Australian troops help convince the kiwis that their cause is best.

After the war, and the horrific losses, the governments of both Australia and New Zealand are very weak. They are blown away in elections. New Zealand becomes more centrist, Australia more leftist. The Australian government is eventually dominated by ex-Soldiers and union leaders. It evolves into an Anti-British military government as civil liberties and imperial powers are discarded.

When the Military government actually becomes formal New Zealand, now much more moderate faces a return to the unrest when the unionists first took power. The different factions of the armed forces and unionists clash. Australia lends a great deal of (mostly political) support to the leftist sides, and eventually the NZ government is toppled and replaced with a pro-Australian ANZAC led government that surrenders power to Sydney.

Mostly fantasy I know. Any thoughts?
(Im a little sketchy on the Aussie politics, when were the unions most militant?)

An interesting post. Of course this whole thread is rather ASB, but still quite interesting to ponder.

One of my main criticisms of this would be the notion of a military-supported left-wing govt. With a few exceptions, most military regimes have been quite right-wing and conservative in their political orientation.
 
An interesting post. Of course this whole thread is rather ASB, but still quite interesting to ponder.

One of my main criticisms of this would be the notion of a military-supported left-wing govt. With a few exceptions, most military regimes have been quite right-wing and conservative in their political orientation.

I know, that is perhaps the biggest barrier in the way of this scenario.
However, perhaps the 'old guard' of the military leadership is removed following the failures of the first world war? A newly inspired Australian nation realises that the British will only continue to waste Australian lives, and a new course of direction is needed.

The resulting leadership is mostly drawn from politically aligned unionists, that would help to prop up the government- coupled with the thousands of returning soldiers who are keen for someone to stick up for them in a changed country.
 
In the interwar years the international links forged by the secret armies in Australia were extensive. There were certainly links with Imperial groups like the Round Table and American ones. I assume, although I have uncovered no direct evidence, that links existed with NZ groups too.

Say the Old Guard and its NZ equivilent became formally closer. The New Guard (which was the paramilitary and public face of the Old Guard) manages to carry out PM Bruce's orders and kidnap and illegally deport Walsh and Johnson before the High Court can rule on the case. This causes a massive reaction from the union movement and open street clashes erupt between the New Guard and the Australian Labour Army and workers' defence corps. The police side with the New Guard at first, but Lang orders them to protect the authority of the State and they then begin beating up and arresting New Guard members.

Bruce orders the Army onto the streets of Sydney to protect life and property. Although this would be unconstitutional, Bruce never had any qualms about breaking the law for his own advantage! The newly established Commonwealth force the Peace Officers' Guard enrols New Guard members en masse and gives them a legitimate role. This creates a constitutional crisis of umparalled dimensions in Australia. Queensland declares this Commonwealth action unconstitutional and the State police arrest all Peace Officer Guards. Simultaneously the government lodges a writ in the High Court seeking to overturn the Commonwealth legislation.

In Victoria, the White Army begins a reign of terror on the streets through beatings, street fights and arbitary 'arrests' of anybody they consider to be anti-British. Other outbreaks in all States begins. Australia is close to anarchy as the Army and police split in their loyalties altough they are mainly conservative or fascist.

Meanwhile in NZ calls go out from the New Guard equivilent for volunteers to help re-establish law and order in Australia. Similar clashes occur there in all the cities and major towns as left groups oppose this effort.

Eventually, as all civil order breaks down under the continued assault of street fights and extra-legal actions, the Army declares Martial Law and struggles to bring order to the situation. Encouraged by the response in Australia to this 'coup' the NZ Army follows suit. They work in close cooperation.

Once order is established, the two military commands decide to amalgamate and they become popularly known as the ANZAC junta. They rule jointly and continue to do so to prevent any opponents escaping to the other country to forment trouble. They work well together on a personal basis since they had direct experience of doing so during the Great War.
 
One Problem: No Organised NZ Extreme Right in 1930s?

I can foresee one slight obstacle to this- the lack of any New Zealand equivalent to an organised extreme right in Australia until the seventies,
due to relative prosperity and Labour/National centrism. There wouldn't be any such group until the Australian League of Rights set up an offshoot
here in 1971. There were isolated propagandists like A.N.Field in Nelson,
but even he had greater influence on Australia's far right than in contemporary New Zealand during the twenties and thirties.

Craig/Pinkcat
 
I can foresee one slight obstacle to this- the lack of any New Zealand equivalent to an organised extreme right in Australia until the seventies,
due to relative prosperity and Labour/National centrism. There wouldn't be any such group until the Australian League of Rights set up an offshoot
here in 1971. There were isolated propagandists like A.N.Field in Nelson,
but even he had greater influence on Australia's far right than in contemporary New Zealand during the twenties and thirties.

Craig/Pinkcat

Alone of all western countries NZ had no organized right wing organisation?

I am sure the Round Table operated in all Commonwealth countries. Remember the Old Guard in Australia and the other organisations who set up the paramilitary groups were the real power not the thugs wandering around beating up workers. The groups with the real power were based on the broad principles of Imperial superiority, anti-communism, anti-socialism, anti-catholicism, anti-semitism and order at any costs.

NZ surely had some organisations like this.
 
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