Australia and New Zealand need each other and "our combined intellectual firepower is unbeatable", award-winning Australian journalist Robyn Williams says.
Mr Williams was commenting in a witty and wide-ranging address to more than 370 science graduates, at the second University of Otago graduation ceremony on Saturday.
And the "land of Oz is in a mess", he told graduates attending the 4pm ceremony at the Dunedin Town Hall.
Australian rugby teams were not performing well and Australia’s "politics, social discourse and sense of a hopeful future seem to have descended into a dark, dismal dreary pit".
"We can’t keep a PM for more than a fortnight, can’t agree on public policy," he said.
He joked that Australia "should be run from Wellington, and even from Dunedin" and that Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his many rivals should "devolve Oz government to the land of the long flat vowel".
English-born, Mr Williams emigrated to Australia in 1972 and joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
He has visited Dunedin since 1983 and filmed segments here for his high-profile Australian science communication television shows.
Although much in Australia was "pitiful" there was one "huge exception": science was "flourishing".
He argued that Australia and Dunedin both did science particularly well and both countries could learn from each other.
It was "similar stories" of scientific achievement that had kept him coming back to Dunedin.
"And the strength of the university with its smaller town reminds me of places such as Cambridge in England" and Adelaide, with "its list of Nobel Prize winners".
Mr Williams was "intrigued" by the range of specialties at Otago University, not least by the strength of psychology.
He was also intrigued by the story of the Dunedin Study over 40 years, and it was "fascinating to debate and argue about" some of the "scientific big ideas" that had emerged from the study.
And the study’s research achievements had also been reflected in a "terrific four-part TV series".
There were many differences between Australia and New Zealand.
Australia was first reached by human beings 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.
New Zealand was occupied by Polynesians, whose ancestors were from Taiwan and Melanesia, only 900 years ago.
But many things were shared: possums, John Clarke (Fred Dagg), Russell Crowe, Sam Neill, great wine and similar flags.
"Australia needs New Zealand as never before and I hope the favour can be returned from across the Ditch as well. We need synergy."
When the two countries worked together "our intellectual firepower is unbeatable," he said.
Otago University College of Education dean Prof Lisa Smith gave an earlier address to more than 330 graduates in many disciplines, including consumer and applied sciences, physical education, surveying, health sciences, education, and teaching.
Prof Smith urged graduates at the earlier Saturday graduation, at 1pm, to consider what they were good at, and that sometimes "you need others to help you figure it out".
Graduates should develop their abilities, and "foster them, cultivate them, elaborate on them, expand them".
And she urged graduates to persevere, take risks, be creative and to make mistakes, be embarrassed and laugh at themselves.
"Don’t tell anyone you can’t do something (unless it’s related to burning a couch)," she said.
When graduates had their "passions and talents aligned" they would be "happy and productive in their lives" and would have "the courage to try new things".
"You’ll be your own action hero. Not one that’s never taken out of the box for fear of losing its value, but one that is in the game and not afraid to get its uniform dirty."