Cullen's snub causes a to-do

Finance Minister Michael Cullen has brought Australasia's political leadership into the controversy over why he's refused an invitation to attend a high-profile transtasman meeting.

"There is considerable dissatisfaction among political leaders on both sides of the Tasman arising out of last year's conference," Dr Cullen told the Herald yesterday. "And the fact it really tried to focus on broader issues and got buried in the issues of particular companies."

Dr Cullen surprised organisers of the Australian New Zealand Leadership Forum when he labelled it a "wailing wall" in Parliament last week, suggesting it had been hijacked by narrow interests "pushing their own barrows".

The forum brings together about 80 political leaders, business men and women, regulators, academics and opinion formers to debate issues affecting both countries.

Dr Cullen's comments have been widely reported in Australian media as a snub to the forum, which meets for its third time in Auckland on May 5-7.

He said yesterday the dissatisfaction was in part one of the reasons why Australian Treasurer Peter Costello was also bypassing this year's event.

Dr Cullen gave two other reasons for his no-show.

"Certainly, all the information I have is that very few major Australian leaders are going to be there at this year's conference.

"That's [also] the couple of days I've got booked for writing the Budget speech and it takes an awful lot to get me out of that."

Dr Cullen said he hoped there might be some changes at the top end of the organisation, leading to "a broader and more inclusive view of what should be going on".