NZ and Australia: Standing together, and apart

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - In 1982, Alexander Downer, a young political adviser to Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, watched relations between the Australian leader and his New Zealand counterpart Sir Robert Muldoon plummet to a new low.

The two had never got on. Muldoon's abrasive character and his oft-repeated jibe that every New Zealander crossing the Tasman raised the IQ of both countries fuelled their mutual dislike.

Fraser had earlier been frosty when his Trade Minister, Doug Anthony - fed up with time-wasting negotiations over import licensing for frozen peas and taps - proposed a free trade agreement between the two countries.

As much as anything, Fraser dreaded Muldoon's inevitable - and fulfilled - claim to have screwed the Aussies again.

This night, both leaders were in Rotorua for the annual meeting of the South Pacific Forum (now the Pacific Islands Forum), staying at what was then the Sheraton Hotel.

As Downer described it to a celebration of the 25th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations, Fraser was sitting in his fifth floor room in the early hours of the morning with staff members and senior foreign affairs officials when his temper broke.

"In the room immediately below us was Sir Robert Muldoon, and at 1.30am Malcolm Fraser took it upon himself to jump on the floor in the hope that he would wake Sir Robert from his sleep, just for the sake of it," Downer said.

"I think this does say something about the ill-feeling there was between the two."

Downer is now Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister, with a prime minister who has made an effort to avoid the distaste that has soured relations between many transtasman leaders, affecting also the way their officials treat each other.

He sees poor personal relations between prime ministers as a "bit of a tradition" that John Howard and Helen Clark have managed to break, despite the gulf in their political beliefs and strategic outlooks.

But in an unusually candid address to the CER function at Old Parliament House in Canberra, he warned of differences between the two countries that without a much broader attempt at mutual understanding could cause serious rifts.

This was more than the standard Australian dig at New Zealand's defence spending and strategic views. It was a call for long-term exertion by both sides, institutionalised through a leadership forum.

It came at a time when differences in perceptions and policies have placed the two, for the first time, on opposite sides of a major global conflict, at a time when Australia is negotiating with the United States a trade agreement that could directly harm New Zealand interests.

Downer also gave a clear pointer to the renewed importance of New Zealand to Australian security, alluded to in Canberra's latest defence review and its emphasis on low-intensity regional crises such as East Timor.

"We see it as critically important that our two governments get on and work together constructively in all the things we work together on," he said.

"Let's not underestimate these things that our governments do work on. Maybe it's easy to think of things where we disagree, but what we don't disagree on are issues relevant to us in our immediate region.

High on Downer's list were the transtasman approach to George Speight's coup in Fiji, joint action in the Solomons, and the leading role played by both countries in ending the bloody and long-running civil war on Bougainville.

East Timor also played a major part in thrusting New Zealand back on to Australia's strategic map, prompting a reappraisal of the country's value despite the Clark Government's decision to scrap the air combat wing and prune the Navy's war fleet to two frigates.

"A lot of the credit - or discredit in some cases - for the East Timor intervention in 1999 goes to Australia, but don't forget that proportionately New Zealand's military contribution was as great as Australia's military contribution," Downer said.

"New Zealand was the first country that came on board in that particular coalition ...

"This doesn't make the stuff of newspapers. Understandably, I suppose, they look for drama and disagreement and conflict. But the cooperation between Australia and New Zealand in recent years in dealing with some of these crucial South Pacific problems has been absolutely vital, and it has been extraordinarily successful."



Downer makes the point - missed by many Australians - that New Zealand is an independent country in some ways very different to Australia, with a view of the world being refined by its position on the globe and the different composition of its peoples.



"New Zealand isn't Australia," he said. "It is a separate country. It is a sovereign country and we may or may not like every one of their policies, but we should respect their opinions and the decisions that they make.

"We certainly don't allow those differences to poison our relationship."

Downer recognised the similarities in population and culture - Anglo-Celtic heritage, Asian migration - but noted that New Zealand society had a much larger South Pacific component, "which, of course, creates different perspectives".

Trade had brought us together. The CER agreement was regarded by the World Trade Organisation as a model for all other free trade agreements, and had disproved the arguments of those opposed to such deals.

But it was a large leap from CER and the loose ends that still needed to be tied up to calls for a common currency or even political union.

On monetary union: "I'm not sure whether in the end New Zealand will make the judgment that it would be in their best interests, that in effect monetary policy would be determined essentially in Sydney and wouldn't be determined any longer in New Zealand."

On political union: "We respect New Zealand's independence and I think New Zealand proudly protects and proclaims its independence ...

"I doubt that it will happen in my lifetime, although who knows what will happen over many years."

And there remains the chasm separating Australia and New Zealand on strategic policies, perceptions of threat and American primacy, and Iraq.

New Zealand twice sent forces to the Gulf with the US and Australia, but only with UN blessing.

This time, Australia has again gone with America, to a large degree because of its alliance and its dependence on US power in the region, while New Zealand has refused.

There has been no public split. Both governments have carefully managed their positions to avoid offending each other and to avoid accusations of interference in each other's domestic politics.



But the underlying divergence remains.

"There have been points of disagreement," Downer said. "There was for example the on-going disagreement over defence policy and some broader international issues."

Downer's argument is that New Zealand and Australia cannot afford to sit back and allow resentments to smoulder and grow to the point where serious, potentially damaging, rifts are gouged across the Tasman.

"New Zealand, given where it is on the map of the world, does often have a different geopolitical perspective from Australia," he said.

"I often draw the attention of people to a rather curious fact, which is that Darwin is closer to Hong Kong than it is to Auckland - closer, in other words, to the Taiwan Straits than it is to Auckland.

"Inevitably in Australia we do have different geopolitical perspectives, we have different priorities in foreign policy and security policy.

"These things do have the potential to drive our two countries apart as time goes on."

Downer said he and New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff wanted to establish an Australian-New Zealand leadership discussion group, made up of 40 to 60 people from each country - to deepen understanding of each other's viewpoints.

The group would include opinion leaders from politics, academia, business and the media, so "the broadly defined leadership of our two countries can get to understand each other better, understand these differences in perspective, understand why there are differences in perspective, and also look at new ways we can work together".