By GREG ANSLEY and BERNARD ORSMAN
SYDNEY - It was a bad 24 hours in Sydney for Helen Clark.
First the Prime Minister watched our women's hockey team roasted by Argentina.
Then Opposition Leader Jenny Shipley slapped her on the grill over relations with Australia, just as she was about to meet Aussie counterpart John Howard.
And to cap it off, nature tried to fry her on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Helen Clark arrived at Olympic Park on Wednesday afternoon expecting to watch our hockey players redeem the nation's honour by thumping the Latin Americans and having a second go at Australia - this time for gold.
She ended up witnessing a 7-1 thrashing and suggestions afterwards that her presence had contributed to the team's "choking" under pressure.
Then at the crack of dawn yesterday, as Helen Clark and an intrepid team of colleagues were preparing to tackle the daunting arch of the harbour bridge ahead of her meeting with Mr Howard, Mrs Shipley got stuck into her at home.
In a breach of the usual protocol, National's leader claimed on radio that the Australian Prime Minister had privately told her that Labour's defence and immigration policies were worrying Canberra.
She had come away with a clear impression that trust between the two countries had been seriously damaged by the Labour Government's decision not to upgrade the Air Force's Orions, which Australia believed could limit the ability of the two countries to work together.
Mrs Shipley said Mr Howard had also swiftly dismissed Helen Clark's public musings over a common currency and told her that he had raised concerns with the PM about New Zealand's selective amnesty for overstayers.
Meanwhile, back in Sydney, Helen Clark, Sports Minister Trevor Mallard and various other dignitaries began walking across the harbour bridge - straight into a violent electrical storm.
The Prime Minister's chief press secretary, Mike Munro, said the storm struck as they neared the peak 134m above the harbour.
"All of a sudden there was a flash of lightning right in front of our faces ... It was like an electric shock coming out of the air."
Later, Helen Clark retorted that Mrs Shipley's statements showed the "inept blundering of someone unfit ever to be Prime Minister again," who was prepared to put petty point-scoring ahead of New Zealand's most important overseas relationship.
"You just don't go out and bag your country overseas like this."
She challenged journalists to ask Mr Howard what he thought of Mrs Shipley's revelations but the Australian Prime Minister refused to be drawn. "I'm not going to get into any debates between the New Zealand Prime Minister and the New Zealand Opposition Leader," he said.
Mr Howard also sidestepped criticism of New Zealand's defence spending and effectively quashed speculation that Canberra would review unrestricted travel across the Tasman in response to New Zealand's amnesty for long-term overstayers.
He said he accepted assurances from Helen Clark that there would be no new exodus to Australia as a result of the amnesty.
Australia had no desire to change the nature of the countries' relationship and if there was no surge in transtasman migration there was no issue.
The two leaders had discussed a common currency but Australia would not push the proposal.
Helen Clark said it was the second time National had sought to undermine her in Australia - the first being immediately before her first meeting as Prime Minister with Mr Howard in March when National's foreign affairs spokesman, Simon Upton, and defence spokesman, Wayne Mapp, visited Australia on the "same mission."
Mrs Shipley said it was totally appropriate for her to meet Mr Howard and his ministers and to make comments in terms of her interpretation about where the transtasman relationship was moving on key issues.
Dr John Henderson, director of the Prime Minister's office during the Lange years, said there were no hard and fast protocols about politicians not backing their own country when abroad.
But he thought Mrs Shipley's comments were inappropriate given that Helen Clark was holding talks with Mr Howard to promote New Zealand's interests.
"She [Mrs Shipley] leaves herself open to the criticism of promoting her own party politics at the expense of the national interest."
Shocking time for Clark in Sydney
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