PM gets ear of Australian media, business

By GREG ANSLEY

MELBOURNE - Prime Minister Helen Clark's economic mission to Australia has started to break ground as the nation's business and media begin to heed her message of innovation and transtasman co-operation.

Although most journalists continued to focus on trade and broad issues, leaders of big corporations and IT companies as well as business academics met Clark and the business delegations at functions in Sydney and Melbourne yesterday.

New Zealand innovators at the big CeBIT IT trade show in Sydney were upbeat about an emerging New Zealand presence in Australia, despite a wide perception that the country had little to offer in the way of technology.

Scott Green, of Axon Computertime in Auckland, said: "They will do business with people they want to do business with, and if you convince them that you're the right people it doesn't matter if you're from New Zealand, Taiwan, or Timbuktu."

Neel Pathak, of Wellington's NPA Systems, said New Zealand technology lacked a high-tech profile in Australia but if the product and marketing were right, doors would open.

"I guess visibility is lacking, but I think [Clark's visit to the trade show] has certainly raised eyebrows from the Australian stands."

Clark spent Tuesday night at a private dinner with Westpac chief executive David Morgan, and yesterday she and the delegation hosted working breakfasts, pushing New Zealand's IT and research and development potential.

In Melbourne, Clark spoke at a lunch for the Council for the Economic Development of Australia, and Associate Economic Development Minister Peter Hodgson led a biotechnology delegation to a meeting with health group CSL.

Media interest has been unusually high for a prime ministerial visit. Clark appeared on Channel Seven's nationwide Sunrise breakfast show yesterday and had interviews with talkback kings John Laws and Alan Jones.

The Sydney Morning Herald ran a prominent news story reporting the reversal of New Zealand's population exodus and a net increase in immigration, spurred by the September 11 terror attacks.

The report also canvassed New Zealand's economic growth and Clark's drive for joint transtasman assaults on world markets. Unusually, it devoted its lead editorial to New Zealand and the thrust of the mission.

The editorial said the reversal of long-standing migration flows suggested the need for a serious rethink of transtasman attitudes beyond the "tired stereotypes".

Despite bilateral tensions caused by the collapse of Ansett and the row over the rugby World Cup, new welfare arrangements had removed a serious irritant in the relationship, it said.

Skilled workers were being enticed back by a growing economy.

"Almost two decades of transtasman economic co-operation has produced a virtually integrated market," said the editorial.

"Clark is proposing joint commercial ventures to seek a greater share of global markets in areas such as biotechnology, communications technology and creative industries.

"Australia should not automatically assume that New Zealand, as the smaller economy, wants to piggyback its way into new markets.

"There is merit in weighing relative economic strengths and weaknesses and exploring compatibilities."

The Australian Financial Review devoted a page to Clark, although it focused on the separate bids by Canberra and Wellington for a free trade agreement with the United States, prospects of a similar deal with Japan, the aftermath of Ansett and a single transtasman currency.

Asia-Pacific editor Rowan Callick described Clark and Australian Prime Minister John Howard as "the odd couple".

"While they, the conservative traditionalist and the social democrat feminist, appear to have little in common, they have been meeting increasingly often in a determined bid to make CER even closer."