Hipkins has a chance to show he is more effective in getting results than Ardern in his Canberra talks

 

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has undergone a stern baptisim of fire in his first week in his new job, but it doesn’t get any easier.

Next week, he has a vital meeting  in Canberra with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, where he has to establish the same kind of rapport as was established between Albanese and Jacinda Ardern as well as inject new energy into the  trade and defence ties with  NZ’s closest partner and ally.

It’s true Ardern won some concessions from Australia  on the sore point  of what  became known as the “501 deportees”.  As applied by previous administrations, waves of people with criminal records have been sent to New Zealand. Details of the changes now being made have yet to be  fully disclosed, although Albanese has said the policy itself will remain.

Aussie election result result opens the way for a revitalisation of the Anzac partnership

Australia’s  election,  thrusting  the ALP  and  its leader Anthony Albanese  back  into  a  governing  role, offers  the Ardern government a fresh  opportunity  to blow  the  cobwebs  off the  Anzac partnership.

During  the  last  years  of the Liberal era,  the once-strong Trans-Tasman relationship appeared  to  cool.  Australia’s deportation policy under   the  notorious  501  provision  of  its  immigration law has  become a sore  point  and  the  Liberal government under  Scott  Morrison planned  to increase  the flow  of  Kiwi deportees, much  to  Wellington’s chagrin.

Australia and NZ share similar goals  in  trade and defence, but these, too, need a fresh polish.  The world during the Covid  era  has  been changing  rapidly, and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine has created  a deep tension in global relationships.

China – in  signing a pact with the  Solomon Islands that  will  enable it to establish  a  base  in that territory – has shaken both NZ  and  Australia  out of  their Pacific  complacency.

In the John Key  era, the Trans-Tasman  relationship had  a  warm  glow  to  it,  even  when the  ALP  had  command  in  Canberra. There  was never  any  doubt  that  Australia and  NZ  marched  in  lockstep on  issues  of  mutual interest.