KEY POINTS:
An unprecedented high-powered delegation of Australian cabinet ministers will visit New Zealand later this week led by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said the delegation was very impressive.
"We have not seen anything like this before from the Australians," she said last night.
Four cabinet ministers, one minister outside cabinet and a parliamentary secretary will head the political team attending the fifth annual Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum in Wellington.
It is a meeting of political, business leaders, and academics of both countries for a closed-door conference to discuss the relationship. It has been one of the driving forces behind the gradual move to a single economic market.
New Zealand's participants will include Helen Clark, Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel.
Helen Clark said she would be interested in discussing with Julia Gillard the speech of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week calling for an Asia Pacific Community by 2020 that would include dialogue on political and security issues as well as free trade.
Rudd has appointed a special envoy, retired diplomat Dick Woolcott, to pursue the initiative in the region's capitals over the next six months. And Mr Rudd will discuss the idea with the leaders of Japan and Indonesia this week on visits to those countries.
Helen Clark was pleased to see him advancing the idea, seeing it as "indicative of Australia wanting to reassert an interest in multilateralism and strong regionalism."
VISITING TEAM
The Australian ministers and their portfolios are
Julia Gillard: Deputy Prime Minister; education, employment and workplace relations
Simon Crean: trade.
Nicky Sherry: superannuation and corporate law.
Lindsay Tanner: finance and deregulation.
Anthony Albanese: infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government.
Duncan Kerr: Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs.
