Jacinda Ardern and Anthony Albanese exchange records after NZ leader lands in Australia

New Zealand’s leader Jacinda Ardern and Anthony Albanese have swapped gifts during her quick trip to Australia, but it’s been met with a brutal sledge.

Jacinda Ardern has been warmly greeted back to Australia for the first time since 2020 by Anthony Albanese, with the two swapping records “mostly by chance”.

But Mr Albanese’s choice of music has been sledged by Ms Ardern’s fiance.

The New Zealand leader touched down in Sydney on Thursday ahead of a day of bilateral meetings on Friday, but headed straight to Kirribilli House for dinner with her Australian counterpart.

She is the first foreign leader to visit the new Prime Minister on Australian soil.

Ms Ardern told the Today show she and Mr Albanese had been “genuinely happy to see each other” and catch up over dinner before Friday’s formalities.

She brought a number of New Zealand records for Australia’s new leader and Mr Albanese also returned the gesture, a move Ms Ardern said was not surprising given her and Mr Albanese’s shared love of music.

“I know that he enjoys music and so I shared with him a few from the Flying Nun label in New Zealand – Aldous Harding, The Clean, Compilation,” she told the Nine Network.

“He looks genuinely happy. In exchange, I got Powderfinger, Spiderbait and Midnight Oil.”

But her fiance, Clarke Gayford, wasn’t too impressed with Mr Albanese’s choice of music.

“Midnight Oil, Spiderbait and The Finger????!!!! What is this, 2004???” he commented on his fiancee’s Instagram post.

When asked why a record swap had never happened with former prime minister Scott Morrison, Ms Ardern took the diplomatic route.

“We talked about music on one occasion, but I’m not sure I would have picked necessarily the right music if I was given that task,” she said.

Ms Ardern and Mr Albanese will use their bilateral meeting to discuss the rise of China, climate change and other issues facing the Pacific region.

Ms Ardern will also push Mr Albanese to change discretionary aspects of Australia’s deportation policy.

“Our issue is not with deportation, we deport as well … But when someone comes here and essentially, hasn’t really had any connection with New Zealand and have all their connections in Australia and are essentially Australian, sending them back to New Zealand is where we’ve had the grievance,” she said.

“We’ve never asked deportations as a general rule to stop. We won’t be hypocritical about it.

“It’s just those extraordinary cases that trouble us.

“I’ve raised it. I want to give the PM some time to consider it … (but) I would like to see movement on it.”

Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Kirribilli House, where the two watched the Vivid light show. Picture: Supplied

Cost of living is also expected to feature in today’s bilateral meeting, considering New Zealand’s inflation is currently at 6.9 per cent and Australia isn’t far behind.

“These are tough, tough times,” Ms Ardern said.

“Speaking with one voice, the conflict in Ukraine is incredibly important to try and bring that to an end … But also continuing to work together to ease supply-chain constraints.

“All of us are hoping that in the latter part of this year it will all be resolved.”