KEY POINTS:
At the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum in Wellington on Friday and Saturday, all the leadership on display came from the politicians, not the business grandees assembled.
The dialogue between the two didn't seem to amount to much more than this: "We must pick up the pace of progress towards a single economic market," said the politicians.
"Couldn't agree more,"said the business leaders. "Keep up the good work."
No sense of urgency, no added impetus or clarity of focus.
There was fleeting discussion of setting a target date for achievement of a single economic market. Perhaps 2015, the centenary of Gallipoli.
After all, that is no further away than the end of the 1960s was when President John Kennedy set it as the deadline for landing a man on the moon. But at least they knew what the moon was, and what landing a man upon it would look like.
The Single Economic Market is a fuzzier target. It may not, in fact, be a target at all, but an endless process - the harmonisation of this, the mutual recognition of that, collaboration on the next thing. All very worthwhile, but the sort of thing which ought to be, and is, business as usual for the governments of two countries which are, in Australian PM Kevin Rudd's words, as close as it gets.
If the concept of a Single Economic Market ever amounted to more than the progressive reduction of regulatory drag on routine business transactions - like a common border or a common currency - there was no sign of it at this gathering.
Canberra sent the strongest ministerial team yet, led by Deputy PM Julia Gillard. It was an encouraging sign of commitment to the relationship from the new Government. Their NZ counterparts grabbed the opportunity of bilateral meetings. But the business delegations dropped the ball.
