On the second morning of ANZ’s three-day board meeting in Auckland this week, chairman Paul O’Sullivan, chief executive Shayne Elliott and the rest of the board were officially welcomed by ANZ’s kiwi staff in a special Maori ceremony.

It was a moving moment that, for this Australian visitor at least, underscored both how hard mainstream New Zealand is working to embrace Maori culture and the burgeoning Maori economy, and how far Australia still has to go in embracing its Indigenous people.