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Australia's most powerful woman, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, paid tribute to Prime Minister Helen Clark in Wellington last night for being an "inspiration" to other women politicians.
"It is great to be here with a woman Prime Minister, someone I very much admired and respected from afar," Ms Gillard said.
"She has obviously been an inspiration for women politicians in this nation and also in our nation."
The two women held talks at Government House on the fringes of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, an annual meeting of high level political and business leaders.
Ms Gillard is at the heart of the reforms being undertaken by the Labor Government, elected last November after 11 years in Opposition.
She is the Minister of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, and the Minister of Social Inclusion and is regarded as a tough-minded politician on the left of the party.
The Welsh-born former lawyer migrated to Australia in 1966 as a five-year-old.
Her electorate, Lalor, is in west Melbourne and last night she presented Helen Clark with a shirt signed by the players of the Western Bulldogs, Ms Gillard's local AFL team.
"I'm told it is not in the NRL so I have got no conflict of interest over the Warriors," Helen Clark said.
Ms Gillard told the Leadership Forum that the new Government was "looking to inject renewed vigour into our transtasman relationship".
Helen Clark said she was expecting a visit to Wellington soon of a special envoy from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to discuss his idea of an Asia Pacific Community, along the lines of the EU.
She appeared lukewarm to the idea and said it was an idea "that needs to be fleshed out".
Apec or the East Asia Summit were possible vehicles for such an idea .
"We need to engage on the idea and see what interest others are showing in it and see whether either of the two major regional vehicles that exist at the moment could be adapted to that."
Meanwhile there is renewed speculation in Wellington that New Zealand can expect a visit soon from an even more powerful woman, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Dr Rice promised in January this year to visit Australia's new Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, in his home town of Perth, and a visit to New Zealand would almost certainly be part of that trip.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has developed a warm working relationship with Dr Rice, and flew to Washington to brief her last year after his visit to North Korea. A visit by Dr Rice would be kudos for Mr Peters, the New Zealand First leader.
It would also be an important milestone in the improving relationship between the the United States, on top of Helen Clark's visit to the White House in April last year.
