Editorial: Unhelpful word to Australia

Having experienced the wrath of Ansett workers at Melbourne Airport last Friday, Helen Clark might have chosen her words more carefully when she appeared on Australian television two days later. Instead, she took an aggressive line, insisting the barricading of aircraft and other acts of "insane Kiwi-bashing" threatened the viability of Air New Zealand - and therefore the prospects of Ansett workers receiving their entitlements.

It was an argument that was a red rag to a bull and one hardly helping the national carrier avoid liability for Ansett staff. Indeed, the Prime Minister's admission that the Ansett claims could bring Air NZ down, probably contributed to the airline's plunging share price yesterday.

Instead of fanning the flames across the Tasman, Helen Clark could have spelled out a few home truths to the Australian public. She might have reminded them, for example, that Ansett's decline began long before Air NZ came in, and that under News Corp and TNT, two Australian icons, Ansett regularly ran at a hefty loss.

Helen Clark might also have pointed out that, in the end, Air NZ was not alone in casting Ansett adrift. Qantas took one look and declined to buy it, at a sale price reportedly ranging "from $1 to a negative sum." Then, of course, when Ansett was put under voluntary administration, the administrators immediately suspended all its operations.

The extent of Air NZ's problems were, similarly, emphasised by the collapse of its share price yesterday. Investors are clearly worried about the airline's viability - and with good reason, given its parlous balance sheet and the international aviation outlook. Most significantly, the plummeting share price imperils the participation of Singapore Airlines and Brierley Investments in the planned $850 million rescue plan. The Government's share of that package seems to recognise that Air NZ could be liable for the Ansett workers' entitlements. But the airline's major shareholders must surely have lost much of their enthusiasm.

And that suggests, unfortunately, that if the national carrier is to survive, the New Zealand taxpayer will have to dig deeper yet.