KEY POINTS:
I tuned in to watch the Australian final of Dancing with the Stars earlier in the week in what I choose to describe as a study in comparative behaviour. (Let's not be too precious here - it was also fabulous light relief after a period of heavy-duty conferencing.)
Just days earlier, a prominent Kiwi - now active in Australian business - described us as bunch of "black hoodie" wearers. Who is he to slag us off, I can hear you say.
But our high-flyer was simply making a point to an Australasian leadership forum that we New Zealanders are a pretty colourless lot in comparison to Australians - self-deprecating rather than confident, with a mind-set that affects our attitudes to success.
I didn't see the entire Dancing with the Stars final. But within minutes of watching the dance-off between the improbably named radio star Fifi Box and songster Kate Ceberano, I had to concede that New Zealand's own dancing stars would quickly be outclassed in an Australian-style match. But not on dancing expertise.
Lorraine Downes, the former Miss Universe who won the NZ crown last year, is streets ahead of this year's Australian finalists on grace, style, skill and beauty.
But when it comes to sheer chutzpah, joie de vivre, sledging competitors, engaging the judges and revving up the Australian audience to get the at-home voters on side - it was no contest.
The Australian finalists understood that they could game their way into the top slots by playing the event as a popularity contest.
The wonderfully outrageous Box, who parlayed her way to radio superstardom by accidentally leaving the mike on while having a hot and heavy phone conversation with her boyfriend, and on another occasion stripped naked before a crowd of 200 people to perform a rain dance during a drought, has it all over our radio star Paul Holmes in the entertainment stakes.
Holmes hammed it up this week to disguise his inability to dance a true pasa doble. But you just know he would far rather have come across as polished as former All Black Norm Hewitt, rather than be exposed week in week out as a rank amateur.
Fifi, who was almost forced to quit after falling down the dance floor stairs, said she owed her second place to the mobilisation of her Triple M fan base.
The winner was the explosively talented Kate Ceberano (it says so on her website). The Australian singer, songwriter and actor proved her dancing talents were just as extensive as her vocal abilities with her fiery salsa, energetic jive and the only perfect score of four 10s for her West Side Story routine.
Ceberano always knew that winning Dancing with the Stars enhanced her celebrity value and ability to command ever higher performance fees.
Her pro-dancing partner, John-Paul Collins - a New Zealander - did not shy away from sharing her limelight. He now represents his new country, Australia, at the world salsa champs - just another of the legions of New Zealanders who have caught a winning streak since crossing the ditch.
Australia's open embrace of winners is what makes that country great. Our typically humble approach holds us back.
But if we want to lift New Zealand's game and ensure the widening economic gulf between our two countries is bridged we need to put a competitive streak at the centre of our national character.
The brooding man-alone advertising imagery - such as the farmer called down from the hill country to turn out for the All Blacks - should be buried once and for all, along with the Mainland Cheese boys and the Barry Crump-style advertisements.
They're just not relevant to our future success as a nation. Neither is the mindless descent into tribal politics on smacking to which we have been subjected.
The only good thing that can be said about Helen Clark's and John Key's parliamentary pact to amend Sue Bradford's bill is that it has finally got smacking off the agenda.
Australia's success story also owes much to its legions of politicians who have been prepared to put international competitive success at the top of their agendas.
Australia is concerned to make sure that it does not fall behind in the global economy - "thus reducing our capacity to create jobs, to innovate, to care for the sick and aged and to help those who need a leg-up in today's competitive world", as PM John Howard said this week.
In New Zealand the failure of Helen Clark's Government to lift this country up the OECD stakes, let alone get into the top half of OECD nations, passes without comment. In fact it is a national disgrace.
It's the type of issue that should have been debated in Parliament all along, rather than smacking.
Until our politicians decide it's time to pull out the stops and go for that winning economic streak the black hoodies will be all too prevalent.