Chris Hipkins welcome all very nice, but it’s more LinkedIn than Instagram

Celebrity Cindy got half an hour in front of the cameras with ­Anthony Albanese and plenty of selfies, but plain old Chippy got only 16 minutes.

Anthony Albanese and Jacinda Ardern in June last year. Picture: AFP

Celebrity Cindy got half an hour in front of the cameras with ­Anthony Albanese and plenty of selfies, but plain old Chippy got only 16 minutes.

Canberra was exposed to New Zealand’s daggy dad era when new Prime Minister Chris “Chippy” Hipkins landed for his first international visit since taking over from Jacinda Ardern in January.

It was always going to be a hard act to follow.

If Ardern is that famous Kiwi chocolate bar – the hokey pokey, interesting but more complex once you take a bite – Hipkins is the duty-free Toblerone you pick up at soggy Auckland Airport.

A bit bland but it does the trick. And according to the polls since Ardern quit, Kiwis love bland.

While Albanese and his new counterpart clearly got on, it wasn’t quite the same as “Jacinda-mania” on display last year.

When Ardern and Albanese appeared together just six months ago at a joint press conference in Sydney, they caught up for a casual dinner, swapped their favourite vinyl, boasted about their connection online with matching Instagram posts before speaking about their respective countries being family. “The closest friends you’ll ever have,” she said.

Hipkins got a nice welcome, but it was a little less Instagram and a bit more LinkedIn.

“We had a very warm lunch today, renewing our acquaintance. I first met Chris, Prime Minister Hipkins, in the parliament in Wellington some years ago. And it means a lot to us as Australians that your first destination as Prime Minister is here to Aus­tralia,” Albanese said.

Very nice, but not Chippy-mania.

Hipkins was keen to reiterate the economic ties between Australia and New Zealand and safely skirted around comparisons to Ardern, instead sticking to the talking points.

The new Kiwi leader stayed in the shallow end of Lake Burley Griffin – there was no “moment” for social media to fawn over; instead, it was just another day, another meeting for the two leaders trying to navigate their way through choppy diplomatic and economic waters.

As soon as Hipkins arrived in Wellington’s “Beehive” less than a month ago, he delivered Labour a bump in the polls.

With Hipkins at the helm, Labour rose by an average of five points in polls conducted by two publications, putting the government in front of the National opposition by close to 2 per cent.

It was almost as if Ardern – the Glinda the Good Witch of the international scene for so many years – was a mirage.

Maybe after years of the international TV star, the daggy dad is just what they needed?

And while he’s here, Chippy was on board to give a little boost to Albanese’s reconciliation hopes.

Hipkins stood with Albanese outside Parliament House in Canberra after being “cleansed” at an Aboriginal welcoming ceremony earlier in the day.

That was the only nod to Indigenous culture. He steered away from commenting on the impending Australian referendum.

Albanese shut down any discussion of the matter when pressed by the Kiwi press corps: “[The voice] didn’t come up in our conversation. It’s a very separate issue,” he said.

What Hipkins lacked in symbolism in the flesh, he made up for with the official gift to Albanese – a hook that signifies good luck and safe travels over water.