KEY POINTS:
Memo John Key: Your job is here. Use the videophone unless you (also) want to be dubbed the "Prime Tourist".
That's the message Key should learn fast before the tantalising invitations he is receiving from powerful world leaders take the tarnish off his impressive debut as New Zealand's new Prime Minister.
He set a punishing tempo this week as he quickly nailed in place support arrangements so National can form a minority Government.
Key's executive skills, honed by years of top-flight management roles in the highly competitive financial sector, enabled him to quickly negotiate a "mana-enhancing" deal with the Maori party co-leaders which will act as a buttress against Act Party leader Rodney Hide's unrealistic post-election attempts to play negotiating hardball.
Tomorrow the new Cabinet line-up will be unveiled. Ministers will be tasked (and sworn in) before Key flies off on Thursday for the Apec Leaders summit in Peru.
So far, so good. There is, as one prominent business leader told me this week, "an incredible lightness of being" as Key's inclusive style makes Helen Clark's "control freakery" a thing of the past.
He has displayed the political leadership that will make him a force to be reckoned with. But with a critical proviso - this is the time for him to stay here and "mind the store" at this most critical juncture in New Zealand's economic history since the 30s .
We need our new Prime Minister to show he is concentrated on domestic concerns.
If this is not on display, there will be a punishing loss of confidence within the business sector that will roll through to major job losses next year.
Key and his Finance Minister-designate Bill English have said they will not release their response to the financial crisis till next month.
But New Zealanders who are worried their jobs might go in the flurry of pre-Christmas layoffs want to hear reassuring statements now, not wait until Key has concluded a series of offshore trips beginning with next week's Apec meeting.
Kiwis read the headlines and the business news this week was all bad. They want more ingenious responses than simply offering dole boosts - try offering employers subsidies or tax incentives instead to keep people in work.
Outgoing Finance Minister Michael Cullen did us a favour by breaking convention and releasing Treasury's highly preliminary forecasts which paint a grim picture of diminishing tax revenues, burgeoning cash deficits and rising unemployment as economic growth shrinks. The figures are on a no-policy change basis but they provide an indicator the new Cabinet will have to make difficult choices if it is to arrest the decline.
In Lima, Key will get a first-hand view of how the international financial crisis is impacting our major trading partners when he talks turkey with the other 19 Asia-Pacific leaders during the two-day summit.
Political heavies like George W. Bush, who is hosting today's G20 emergency meeting, will give his insights into the state of the US financial system.
Also there will be Chinese President Hu Jintao, who has just announced a major stimulus package.
Apec ought to provide Key with sufficient insights into the crisis to immediately come home and instruct his Cabinet to get to work on a crisis package that will go further than National's suite of election policies.
Key was no doubt flattered to get the call from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to fly to London for yet more talks. Brown has proven a class act due to his own superb response to the crisis.
But his skills were honed during the long years he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Key has yet to earn his stripes.
And does he really need to spend time catching up with his friend, the British Conservative party leader David Cameron? Surely the victory rolls with political soulmates can come later after his Cabinet has arrested the economic decline.
Across the Tasman, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has attracted searing criticism for the amount of time he's spent on the road during his first year in office. He has been dubbed the "Prime Tourist" and will have clocked up 50 nights offshore by the time he gets back from Lima.
Key's bilateral meeting with Rudd in Lima will be one of the most important on his Apec agenda. Unlike former Australian Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, Rudd has tended to take Helen Clark's Government for granted.
He did not consult her before announcing plans to reform Apec, and has since announced major measures which have transtasman implications without including New Zealand.
Key plans to put taxation issues and banking supervision on the agenda for the Rudd meeting. He is also likely to tell Rudd that an upcoming Defence white paper will be geared towards increasing New Zealand defence forces' interoperability with Australia.
But the critical issue is how to arrest New Zealand's savage loss of competitiveness with Australia. Many business people favour dropping the corporate tax rate well below Australia's to give more companies the incentive to either stay headquartered in New Zealand or reallocate investment here.
Key needs to keep these realities foremost. The last thing we need is a star-struck Prime Minister.
Use that videophone please.
