Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during their joint press conference at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during their joint press conference at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ love-in continued during Albanese’s visit to Wellington on Wednesday in which the pair announced they would try to make transtasman travel “seamless”.
Hipkins said the pair would put together a “joint Australia-New Zealand expert group, with a clear deadline of 12 months, to scope initiatives to move closer towards seamless travel across the Tasman”.
“We agreed it’s worthwhile to re-engage on a process to find workable measures that would help transtasman businesses and tourism with a simplified border,” Hipkins said.
But he cautioned there would be no easy changes.
“It’s not straightforward. Our border is a big part of what keeps us safe. It’s where we manage major biosecurity, people, health and security risks,” Hipkins said.
“This process will bring the experts together to talk about whether there are ways in which we reduce barriers at the border, while not compromising our security.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was welcomed to the floor of Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Albanese said he wanted to see “seamless” travel between the countries. .
He said New Zealand and Australia could make better use of “SmartGate” technology already in use on both sides of the Tasman, which would mean that “before you get on a plane in either country, it’s already recognised that you are ‘okay’ to come in”.
Albanese said there are “no two countries in the world that are closer than Australia and New Zealand”, citing the pair’s five meetings since Hipkins became prime minister in February.
Albanese was welcomed to the floor of Parliament, the first Australian Prime Minister to enjoy that honour since Julia Gillard in 2011. It echoed Hipkins himself being shown onto the floor of the Australian Parliament during his visit to Australia in February and symbolised the closeness of the relationship.
On Wednesday night the pair had what was billed as a “cheers with beers” moment at the World Cup Fan Zone in Wellington, before being whisked away for a gala dinner at Government House celebrating 40 years of Closer Economic Relations.
It is not Hipkins’ only diplomatic engagement this week. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will touch down in Wellington on Wednesday evening for a day of diplomacy in Wellington on Thursday.
The reason for the back-to-back diplomacy is the Fifa Women’s World Cup, which New Zealand and Australia are jointly hosting.
Blinken is taking after many northern hemisphere countries renewing their interest in the Pacific. He arrives in New Zealand from Tonga, where he opened a new US Embassy, and will travel on to Brisbane, Australia where he will be joined by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.
It is Blinken’s first official visit to New Zealand.
But a visit from Kurt Campbell, the US national security coordinator for the Indo-Pacific region in March, led some in the Government to believe New Zealand may eventually be able to participate in pillar II, which involves sharing other technology and cooperating in areas like cybersecurity.
Defence Minister Andrew Little said at the time New Zealand had been “offered the opportunity to talk about whether we could or wish to participate in that pillar II aspect of it”.
Aukus partners have been pouring cold water on the idea of New Zealand finding a way into pillar II.
Albanese said in Wellington there were no plans to change the current three-country arrangements that exclude New Zealand.
“We already have an important relationship in defence and one if the things pillar II is about is essentially use of tech … there are no plans at this point in time to extend beyond the Aukus pillar I and pillar II arrangements,” Albanese said.
“That doesn’t mean that there won’t be cooperation across a range of areas as well including access to technology, including complementarity including interoperability,” he said.
