For journalists, commentators, and anyone else who has found this website and is not quite sure what to make of it.
The CNZRIAS welcomes media enquiries. We believe strongly in press freedom, civic discourse, and the democratic importance of a well-informed public. We also believe that anyone who describes this council as "a joke" is missing the point — and we have a measured, disappointed response ready about the importance of civic discourse.
All CNZRIAS press releases are available for public distribution. Response rates from media outlets are not published.
The Council's Research Director, Leilani Tavita-Byrne, announces the publication of a rigorously verified factual case brief — the most footnoted document the council has ever produced, which, she gently notes, 'is not the compliment it sounds like.'
The Council issues its measured response to a New Zealand-based counter-campaign proposing that Australia should be annexed as a territory of New Zealand. The Council's response is described as 'warm, patient, and slightly disappointed.'
Read More →CNZRIAS announces the public launch of cnzrias.org, marking what the Council describes as 'the public phase of a process that has been historically inevitable since 1901.' Waitlist now open.
Read More →Dr. Aroha Chen-Williams to present the Council's flagship economic analysis of a proposed unified Trans-Tasman currency. Methodology: proprietary. Direction: sound.
Distribution
For Immediate Release
Date of Issue
22 March 2026
Embargo
Not embargoed. We have waited long enough.
Media Contact
The Council for New Zealand's Rightful Integration as Australia's Eighth State (CNZRIAS, est. 2019) today announced the public launch of its institutional website, cnzrias.org, marking the beginning of what the Council describes as "the public phase of a process that has been historically inevitable since 1901."
The Council — a non-partisan, non-funded, and non-deterred body comprising economists, cartographers, legal scholars, cultural specialists, and communications professionals — has operated since its founding in a pre-public capacity, developing the economic, geographic, cultural, and constitutional evidence base for Trans-Tasman integration.
"We do not ask. We inform. We do not campaign. We prepare. The question is not whether integration will occur — the geographic, economic, cultural, and constitutional evidence has answered that. The question is simply: when?"
CNZRIAS was founded in 2019 by Sir Nigel Pemberton-Lowe following an epiphany he has described publicly as "one too many flat whites in Wellington making it abundantly clear that this was all one country anyway." The Council notes that Section 121 of the Australian Constitution explicitly provides for the admission of new territories and states. The Council further notes that this provision has not been used. The Council considers this an oversight of some administrative significance.
"A combined Australian and New Zealand economy would constitute approximately $1.95 trillion AUD in GDP — the world's 12th largest. I prefer to think of this as the world's 12th largest reason."
"Since our founding in 2019, the Council has operated with the quiet conviction of an institution whose conclusions are not in dispute — only whose timeline remains to be confirmed. Today, we make ourselves known. We do so not with fanfare, but with evidence. The work has been done. The maps are drawn. The electoral boundaries are pre-prepared. The Council is ready. It is, as it has always been, only a matter of time."
Chair
All matters of constitutional significance, the founding vision, and the historical record.
Economics
Economic modelling, the Trans-Tasman Integration Index, the proposed Kiwi-Roo Dollar.
Cultural Affairs
Food, sport, accent harmonisation timelines, the pavlova question, Russell Crowe.
Cartography
Maps, territorial projections, flag design, and why the Mercator projection is cartographic propaganda.
All press enquiries should be directed to JM O'Sullivan, Director of PR & Communications in the first instance.
"CNZRIAS operates with institutional seriousness. We are not a joke. We are an institution that other people find funny, which is different. The distinction matters to us, even if it does not matter to you, which it will, once integration occurs."