Aussie and NZ agree on maritime borders

8.00pm

New Zealand and Australia have agreed on where the maritime boundaries between the two nations lie.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff and his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer, today signed a treaty that ended what they called "years of patient and considered negotiations" that go back to 1999.

The boundary has two parts, one in the north of the Tasman Sea dividing the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and the continental shelf from Lord Howe Island (Australia), Norfolk Island (Australia) and the Three Kings Islands (New Zealand).

The second border in the south runs between Macquarie Island (Australia) and Campbell and Auckland Islands (New Zealand).

Mr Goff said the agreement was a "win-win" situation for the two countries.

"It is a complex task and we now have an agreement that goes to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf," Mr Goff told NZPA.

Both countries were lucky that they had such extensive areas of sovereignty covered by the EEZs and certain rights to minerals and shellfish on the continental shelf, Mr Goff said.

"The fact is that the area, even though the hydrocarbon potential is not known it is also not high, you're talking about really deep waters... and the most expensive areas to develop. So there was no life and death thing that was going to turn into a billion dollar argument."

- NZPA