Meeting of minds across ditch

AFTER the intensity of Jakarta, the PM and Foreign Minister should enjoy a more relaxed international meeting of minds today.

AFTER the intensity of the encounter in Jakarta, Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop should enjoy a more relaxed international meeting of minds today.

The Prime Minister is hosting his New Zealand counterpart, John Key, in Canberra, and Ms Bishop is talking with her Kiwi counterpart, Murray McCully, in Wellington. It is an unusual moment in the trans-Tasman relationship, because over the past couple of decades the governments on either side have tended to be of contrasting political hues.

Today's leaders are both centre-right figures. Mr Abbott is 55, Mr Key is 52. Mr Key does not share Mr Abbott's diverse fitness pursuits, but does start each day with a run at 5.45am.

Mr Key said the meeting would provide a chance "to build chemistry and rapport", which would be the focus rather than "announceables". The two will meet again at international forums, including the APEC summit in Bali, the East Asia Summit in Brunei, and the Commonwealth heads meeting in Colombo.

There are areas in which the new Australian government will be especially interested to compare notes with New Zealand. Mr Key has announced his government will sell 49 per cent of each of three power utilities, and will also sell its 73.13 per cent stake in Air New Zealand, reinforcing the government's return to a budgetary surplus next financial year, ahead of Australia.

Mr McCully has radically reshaped New Zealand's foreign policy and the institutions that implement it. He appointed John Allen, who was running NZ Post, as chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Mr Allen required all senior staff, including ambassadors, to reapply for their jobs, which many failed to secure.

NZ Aid, which had spun off as an agency on its own, was reintegrated into the ministry by Mr McCully three years ago. The aid program has been refocused on the Pacific and on fostering economic growth and jobs.

Ms Bishop has also pegged back aid spending, and is reintegrating AusAID into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Mr Key, after introducing in his first term a low-key emissions trading scheme, has pursued an approach to climate change that, according to New Zealand political analyst Colin James, "is so pragmatic as to have dropped off the government's agenda".

There has been debate inside New Zealand about access to government welfare and services for its citizens who live in Australia, and about developing the Closer Economic Relations arrangement into a single economic market, but neither issue is likely to devour much time in the talks today.