John's very expensive idea actually Kevin's

When Kevin Rudd and John Key talked over dinner last night in Sydney, you can bet that the Big Fat Expensive Idea from Key's Friday job summit - a joint investment fund between the banks and the Government - was up there.

That is because it is essentially a Rudd idea.

The Australian Prime Minister announced something very similar just over a month ago, a plan that is fast becoming known as RuddBank.

The Aussie Government is putting in $2A2 billion and the four major banks A$2 billion (Westpac, ANZ, NAB and Commonwealth) to a fund called the Australian business investment partnership.

The idea is to be able to refinance viable commercial property developments that have been financed by foreign banks and which might not get continued financing when their loans fall due. About A$75 billion is due for refinancing in the next couple of years.

Rudd estimated it could save 50,000 jobs in the construction sector. Key will be keen to know how it is progressing given that he has given himself a two-month deadline in which to respond to ideas generated through the summit.

The New Zealand partnership investment fund proposal came from the bankers' workshop at Key's job summit and it is unlikely to have got this far without their parent Aussie banks giving it a tick. It would be worth about $2billion - $1billion from banks and another billion from the Government.

The New Zealand partnership would be a bit different - aimed not at refinancing loans but at buying shares in essentially otherwise sound businesses were it not for the recession. (The words Fisher and Paykel spring to mind though they were not mentioned on Friday).

I suspect it won't be the investment fund that grabs people's imagination from the summit, however. It will be the idea of a cycling track that he says would cost $50 million to build over two years and employ 4000 people doing so. (The idea came from Key himself rather than one of the workshops).

It is bound to attract some cynicism - as ex-MP Gilbert Myles did in the mid-90s when he proposed a motorway the length of the country.

But this idea is more realistic and would be associated with the nearly completed Te Araroa walkway the length of the country that journalist Geoff Chapple has championed.

Key is a little hazy about whether the plan would be to build a parallel cycle track or to take a diversion through some of the national parks en route .

I can't imagine there would be any rationale in building a twin track the length of the country - better surely to have one decent one but perhaps of such a standard in suitable parts that it could take pedestrians and cyclists.