Jacinda Ardern has handled her first overseas mission as Prime Minister with considerable skill. Fittingly, she made Australia her first port of call and managed to steer adroitly between the reefs of needless foreign offence and disappointed domestic supporters that lurked beneath the surface of Australia's refugee problem. Having offered to take 150 of the refugees from Manus Island and Nauru she acknowledged New Zealand was not in the same "circumstances", but added, "we can also not ignore the human face of what Australia is dealing with".
Some of her supporters need to be careful about urging her to mount a high horse of moral superiority on issues such as this. New Zealand does not lie within reach of illegal immigration by sea on the scale Australia has known. While it is easy to sympathise with people so desperate to escape poverty and perhaps personal danger, it is not as easy to suggest solutions that would not compromise Australia's immigration control and encourage many more people to risk their lives with people smugglers in overloaded boats.
Offshore detentions centres are obviously not a good solution from the refugees' point of view or Australia's. They are a blight on the country's reputation and self-image. But it obviously is no solution for prospective "boat people" to discover that if they are blocked by Australia their consolation prize might be admission to New Zealand.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gently declined Ardern's offer "at this time", saying he was giving priority to the resettlement of 1250 people in the United States under the deal he did with former President Barrack Obama.
The world knows what Donald Trump thinks of that deal and the US is taking its time to vet the refugees. If Ardern's offer has done nothing else, it has signalled New Zealand's new Government is not in step with Trump on these concerns. While several years of record immigration was an underlying issue in the election campaign, it did not feature strongly in debates and the New Zealand First vote went down.
Labour is clearly comfortable with an annual refugee quota increase to 1000, within which it would have found 150 places from detainees on Manus Island or Nauru ahead of some whose claims for asylum have been endorsed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
On the other subject of perennial contention - Australia's treatment of expatriate Kiwis, Ardern told Turnbull that if they were charged for university tuition as international students, there could be repercussions for Australian students here. Turnbull sounded unmoved. "We respect each others rights to lead and govern our own nations," he said.
He probably suspects the Ardern Government's free tertiary education is going to require severe restrictions on those who qualify and it will probably have to be limited to New Zealand citizens.
Their joint press conference in Sydney on Sunday suggested they can get along comfortably well, which has not always been the case between Prime Ministers of the two close neighbours. When they can work together in international gatherings, both countries benefit.
Turnbull will probably enjoy introducing Ardern to Apec leaders this week where she needs to show this country has lost none of its drive in trade and international affairs.