PMs reaffirm renewed trans-Tasman relationship

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met in Sydney this morning for their first annual Australia New Zealand Leaders Meeting.

“It was great to meet with Prime Minister Albanese again further cementing the close renewed relationship between Australia and New Zealand,” Jacinda Ardern said.

“It is important that we are able to continue to communicate freely and coordinate across the full spectrum of domestic and international issues.

“In what is an increasingly uncertain and risky geostrategic environment, having close friends that share values and work together is more essential than ever for the security and well-being of our citizens and the region.

“Having a number of my Cabinet colleagues, and their Australian counterparts, attend our meeting was a valuable opportunity for us to strengthen those individual relationships, and discuss the range of our governments’ mutual policy interests,” Jacinda Ardern said.

The pair discussed changes to the situation of New Zealanders in Australia including ways to streamline New Zealanders access to Australian citizenship with agreement to identify options by ANZAC Day 2023; cooperation and engagement in the Pacific region, climate change and the responsibility on countries to commit to ambitious climate change action; and respective responses to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

“New Zealand is a proud pacific nation, and with the Pacific Islands Forum next week, we discussed in detail our shared view that the perspectives and priorities of Pacific island countries need to guide all regional engagement.  

“New Zealand has also reiterated our commitment to support COVID-19 recovery, regional prosperity and security, including through joint support for high-quality, climate-resilient infrastructure, and will be discussing with other pacific countries how we can continue to support the region,” Jacinda Ardern said.

Prime Ministers also noted the success of the Single Economic Market under the CER, and the importance of the agreement in helping provide economic security to both countries. They agreed economic ministers should meet later in the year to explore other opportunities to support trans-Tasman businesses and consumers to further accelerate the economic recovery for both countries.

As a demonstration of the reset of the relationship we also agreed to annual formal bilateral meetings between our Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Finance and Climate Change.

The Prime Ministers agreed to continue working closely together to address these and other issues that matter to both countries, and set out in a Joint Statement the full breadth of issues discussed.