Liberal Party, although National Prime Minister Jim Bolger spoke in favour of a republic in 1994. While there is little prospect of political union now, in 2006 there was a recommendation from an Australian federal parliamentary committee that a full union should occur or Australia and New Zealand should at least have a single currency and more common markets. New Zealand Government submissions to that committee concerning harmonisation of legal systems however noted: Diplomacy The two countries and their colonial precursors have enjoyed unbroken friendly diplomatic relations over the entire period of their coexistence from the early nineteenth century up to the present. They are founding and continuing United Nations member states and they were formerly founding members of the League of Nations carrying through for the entire period until its dissolution. There is otherwise a high degree of commonality between Australia's international organisation memberships and those of New Zealand. There is a high degree of commonality in their co-membership of international organisations and their coparticipation as signatories of multilateral treaties of significance. They are conjoint members of a number of influential trade blocs, forums, military alliances, sharing and interoperability arrangements, and regional associations. Both are members of the World Trade Organization, APEC, the IAEA, the East Asia Summit, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, the Pacific Islands Forum, the ASEAN–Australia–New Zealand Free Trade Area, the Conference on Disarmament, the International Criminal Court, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, INTERPOL, WIPO, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group, the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, the Cairns Group, the Proliferation Security Initiative, the International Hydrographic Organization, the International Maritime Organization, the International Whaling Commission, the International Organization for Migration, the International Seabed Authority, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the OECD, the Colombo Plan, the Asian Development Bank, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, and the World Organisation for Animal Health. Both are occasional observers to ASEAN. Both have signed and ratified the ICCPR and its First Optional Protocol and Second Optional Protocol, the Convention Against Torture, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and its Optional Protocol, the First Hague Convention – with Australia additionally acceding to the Second Hague Convention, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Geneva Conventions, the Antarctic Treaty System, the Outer Space Treaty,