The trans-Tasman relationship

Speech notes for address to Australia/New Zealand Leadership Forum evening function. Government House, Wellington

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Your Excellencies

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard

Ministers from Australia and New Zealand, representatives of the Opposition from both countries, co-Chairs John Allen and Rod McGeoch, and all participants in the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, welcome to Wellington.

I am delighted to acknowledge the presence of so many Australian Ministers.

Your presence affirms the unique closeness between us, and continues the process of our two governments getting to know each other since the election in Australia last year.

When Kevin Rudd and I met informally in February, we emphasised our joint commitment to a high-quality relationship between New Zealand and Australia, at the government-to-government level and through events such as the Leadership Forum.

We also strongly affirmed the importance of our economic relationship.

2008 sees the 25th anniversary of the Closer Economic Relations Agreement

Today, the value of removing barriers to trade is taken for granted, but in the early 1980s the decision to move towards CER was bold.

Twenty-five years on, it is regarded as "the world’s most comprehensive, effective, and mutually compatible free trade agreement".

We should acknowledge the vision of those who thought outside the frameworks of the times and provided the leadership to take us in new directions.

The ties which bind New Zealand and Australia are strong and wide ranging.

As Kevin Rudd said in February, the relationship is "as close as it gets".

Yet the world is becoming more complex, and we need to build on the strong connections between us as we turn to face new and pressing global challenges.

Climate change, high oil prices, increasing food costs, environmental degradation, and challenges to governance and security around the world are global challenges requiring global solutions.

We may live on islands but no-one could ever accuse either of our countries of being insular.

We both understand that our future lies in being part of the global community.

As two sovereign nations, we don’t see every issue in exactly the same way. There will always be factors - geographic, demographic, political or social - which mean we do things differently.

But when we look at the challenges of today’s world, co-operation between us makes sense.

With CER as a template, we are powerful allies on trade policy.

Trade Ministers Phil Goff and Simon Crean are working closely together to see if the WTO’s Doha negotiations can be brought to a conclusion. That is a matter of vital importance to both of us.

In similar vein, we are negotiating jointly with ASEAN on a Free Trade Agreement.

We are in dialogue on our wider trade policy objectives and negotiations, and we are close partners in the East Asia Summit and in APEC.

APEC began as a result of an initiative taken by an Australia Labour Government. So we welcome Kevin Rudd’s speech last week on the importance of building an Asia Pacific Community. New Zealand strongly supports building a greater sense of community throughout the Asia-Pacific. We will readily engage with all who share that vision.

We are also heartened by the new Australian Government’s focus on both strong regionalism and multilateralism.

Last year I led a delegation of more than fifty New Zealand business people to Australia. We focused on export opportunities and on building commercial partnerships with Australia to pursue opportunities in third markets.

Our trade relationship shouldn’t just focus on the sale of goods and services to each other – important as that is – but also on how we can compete against the rest of the world, together.

An extensive work programme is underway to give substance to the "Single Economic Market" between Australia and New Zealand.

Gains in this area may not make headlines, but they make doing business across the Tasman easier.

More and more, we are seeking to align or harmonise approaches to regulation, standards, and the range of "behind the border" issues which can get in the way of doing business.

In addition to facilitating business between us, quality agreements on standards between Australia and New Zealand can lead to their wider acceptance within our Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

That can only benefit exporters.

In science and innovation too there is a lot to be gained in teaming up together. There are many links between our government scientific establishments, and our universities, and there is scope to do more.

I am particularly pleased that joint projects have been undertaken in biotechnology with the assistance of the Australia New Zealand Biotechnology Partnership

And New Zealand was one of the first investors in the Victorian Government’s massive Synchrotron project in Melbourne which I was able to visit last year.

In cutting edge areas of science like these, resources – funding and people – are under pressure, and we have more to gain from co-operation than competition.

We’ve also joined up to provide world-class education and professional development for public servants through the Australia New Zealand School of Government, set up jointly by the University of Melbourne and Victoria University, and co-funded by our governments.

As well, there are new generation issues emerging where we have much to gain through co-operation.

European consumers’ concern about the environment and climate change in particular has turned in certain quarters into the flawed notions of "food miles" and opposition to long-distance tourism.

For both of us, agricultural exports and tourism are core parts of our economies and they are sectors where we have a natural advantage. We share an interest in countering new forms of protectionism and we can work together to combat it.

This is not just a matter of de-bunking claims based on emotion, not fact. We have to recognise that more consumers around the world are wanting to buy goods and services which have been made and distributed with environmental integrity.

So we must demonstrate that we take sustainability seriously.

That’s one of the reasons New Zealand is taking action to combat climate change. Quite apart from the intrinsic importance of doing so, we have a direct interest in protecting our markets.

New Zealand and Australian positions on climate change are becoming more closely aligned.

We have much to gain from working together in the intense and complex international negotiations taking place to pull together a new, post-2012, international agreement.

We are both developing emissions trading schemes. They may not be identical given the different structures of our economies, but we should strive to achieve compatibility where we can.

That will be positive for business and for the environment - it will add a further important strand to our trans-Tasman partnership, and it will maximise our influence on the way the international carbon markets of the future are designed.

Twenty-five years ago, leaders on both sides of the Tasman had a vision that a closer economic partnership would bring benefits to both countries.

They can hardly have imagined how wide and how deep those benefits would be, not just for our two economies but also for the wider relationship.

The pillars of this relationship – trade and economic, people-to-people, foreign policy, defence, and political – are strong, and they are mutually reinforcing.

And those pillars sit on some very strong foundations – foundations of common values, comradeship, family, our commitment to fair societies, and an instinctive willingness to look to the other for ideas, inspiration, and support.

In April I dedicated the statue of a New Zealand World War I soldier on ANZAC Bridge in Sydney.

Our soldier stands there now, facing his mate the Australian digger. Both statues are an enduring testimony to the unique bonds between us.

This Leadership Forum is a contemporary expression of our ties.

The trans-Tasman talent assembled in this room tonight plays a vital role, with government, in identifying and responding to challenges to the future well-being of our countries.

Thank you all for making time in your busy lives to gather here in Wellington for that purpose.