That is the view of Dr Bryce Edwards, a University of Otago lecturer in politics. The two countries had much in common, but some recent Australian actions were looking like ''arrogance'' and could be perceived in this country as bullying, Dr Edwards said.
Earlier this week, Prof Bill Harris, also of the Otago politics department, said holding some New Zealanders for months in detention and deporting some of them to this country despite the fact they had lived in Australia since childhood had highlighted the ''limits'' of the transtasman ''special relationship''.
Dr Edwards said recent detentions and deportations, although not aimed specifically at New Zealanders, were ''definitely straining'' the transtasman relationship.
He said Australia's reputation had been ''damaged'' over human rights issues, including the treatment of some New Zealanders.
''If Australia is not careful they're going to be regarded as a pariah.''
''There's always been that big brother, little brother relationship going on with Australia and New Zealand. Increasingly, the little brother feels that the bigger brother is being a bully,'' he added.
About 200 New Zealanders are being held in seven detention centres awaiting deportation, after Australia toughened its rules to deport criminals, some of whom had not lived in New Zealand for many years and committed relatively minor offences, The New Zealand Herald has reported.
And up to 75 New Zealanders and Pacific Islanders could be held on Christmas Island, an isolated Australian territory south of Java in Indonesia that has long been used to detain asylum seekers.
Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne said yesterday the response to Kiwis being held in Australian deportation centres was inadequate and subservient.
Mr Dunne, who leads Government coalition partner United Future, said New Zealand's foreign policy lacked commitment to human rights.
And it had become ''too craven and trade focused and lacking a moral compass'', he wrote in his Dunne Speaks newsletter yesterday.
Dr Edwards said Mr Dunne's ''quite remarkable'' comments amounted to a ''thinly veiled criticism of his boss, the Prime Minister''.
But Prime Minister John Key tended to take a ''relaxed'' approach, and generally tolerated different viewpoints being expressed by members of coalition support parties, Dr Edwards said.
In recent years New Zealand and Australia had often been heading in different directions in several respects.
And the Closer Economic Relations (CER) agreement had not been followed up by the more comprehensive mutual immigration reforms put in place in the European Union, he said.
Aspects of the future of the transtasman relationship needed to be rethought in Australia, including the way some New Zealanders were being treated, Dr Edwards said.
