“The Art of the Possible –
Building the Trans-Tasman Relationship”
Address by H E Ms Harinder Sidhu AM,
Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand,
to The Trans-Tasman Business Circle,
Eden Park Stadium Auckland, 6 March 2025
E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga iwi, e rau rangatira ma
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
It’s a genuine pleasure to speak with you all today.
I’d like to acknowledge and thank Nick Sautner, CEO of Eden Park, for hosting us this afternoon.
My particular thanks to Sharron Lloyd and Johnny Weiss for bringing us together today.
I of course met Johnny before I was announced as High Commissioner to New Zealand, at another event where I first aware of the scope of the Business Circle’s work.
But I have to say that it is only since I assumed this role that I have truly come to appreciate your professionalism and the impact you have been able to make on the work you do. In many ways, I have seen the Business Circle as perfectly complementary partner to my efforts to make the trans-Tasman relationship deeper and stronger.
As High Commissioner, of course, my primary role is to be a steward of the relationship.
There are many ways to interpret what ‘stewardship’ means.
For many, it simply means ‘care and maintenance’. And it’s easy to see how the New Zealand relationship can do very well with this approach.
It’s a relationship that works well and, by and large, manages itself. So you can be an excellent High Commissioner simply by keeping things ticking along, smoothing over any irritants that arise and generally keeping business on track.
That, for better or for worse, is not how I think of stewardship.
I prefer to think of it in much more active terms.
My mum always told me to leave a place better than I found it. It’s easier said than done, I find. But it has always been the best advice.
And so, in approaching my role here in New Zealand, I asked myself what I could do to make the Trans-Tasman partnership even better?
What would it take to shift the dial on a relationship as deep and mature as ours? Surely everything that could be done had already been done.
The Closer Economic Relationship Trade Agreement – one of the world’s first FTAs, is still today considered gold standard. We have created a level of economic integration in scope and depth that has very few parallels in the world.
Our relationship is bound by the unbreakable tie that is the links between our people. Over 700,000 New Zealanders call Australia home. There is virtually no Kiwi or Australian who doesn’t have a friend, relative or acquaintance on the other side of the Tasman. We are deeply interconnected.
So what, really, is there left to do?
I’ve titled this address ‘The Art of the Possible’. That phrase is taken from a quote by that great political realist, Otto von Bismarck. He said that ‘politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best’.
It is generally taken to be a prescription to do less, to realistically settle for what can be done rather than pursue the ambition of what could or should be done.
When it comes to the Trans-Tasman relationship, I think we can turn this idea on its head. Because what is possible in this relationship is really very large.
We can reach for the stars, because we already have a track record of great success born of ambition and imagination. That is what underpinned the CER, the Trans-Tasman Travel Agreement and everything else that makes the relationship what it is today.
The deep trust and understanding between us – which is a result of our people links, our shared history, our common values and world view – has given us the space to think imaginatively and audaciously.
I would argue that we need that imagination and audacity now more than ever.
In contrast to the last time, 40 years ago, that we responded together to economic risks by creating the CER, today, our challenges are in the security, as much as the economic, space.
We are in a rapidly changing geostrategic environment. This is not about distant conflicts – in the Middle East or in Ukraine – although make no mistake, Australia’s view is those are significant and have real relevance for us.
But we are facing changing power balances and relationships in our own region, in the Indo-Pacific. China is now a great power and is looking to exercise strategic weight commensurate with its economic size. We’ve seen this in just the past couple of weeks, with the transit of a Chinese Naval Task Group through the Tasman Sea and around Australia.
Our close partner and ally, the United States, now has a new Administration in place that has won office by campaigning on change. So we shouldn’t be surprised that there is change, and we are now working with the Trump Administration to secure our mutual interests.
This is all is happening while other Indo-Pacific powers are also rising, and also looking for an enlarged space in the world.
Everywhere around us, nations are examining and reorienting their focus in response to changed circumstances. As a result, the geopolitical picture in our region is more complex than it has been for decades.
And with that complexity and change comes risk.
It’s time for us to again apply our imagination to thinking ambitiously about our relationship in the security sphere.
This is because our governments have a direct responsibility for the security and prosperity of our people, but also because we each aspire to a region that is stable, secure, open and prosperous.
We can think ambitiously because, in a world where trust among nations is diminishing, Australia and New Zealand share a deep well of trust and confidence in each other. That trust is a valuable strategic asset.
As we grapple with the challenges we face today, we need to recognise that we are also now very different nations to who we were in 1983 when we struck the CER agreement.
How we see ourselves has changed. Australia’s cultural diversity has expanded and we are becoming, in parts, a more ‘Eurasian’ nation than before. New Zealand, for its part, has now a much more distinct identity through its embrace of Maori language and culture and through the strong Pasifika diaspora in the country.
Our economic bases have diverged, with Australia riding a minerals boom while New Zealand has become a major agricultural exporter and a global dairy superpower.
If we are to build a Trans-Tasman Partnership that is fit for the future, then our starting point is for each to understand the other on their own merits, rather than rely on nostalgia or old stereotypes.
It is with great satisfaction that I can say, over the past three years, I have seen us starting to do just that.
A turning point was the launching of a Trans-Tasman Roadmap to 2035 by both our Prime Ministers in August 2023. This is much more than just another piece of diplomatic paper.
The Roadmap has set the frame for where we will invest and focus our efforts over the next decade or so. It is a living document that drives a workplan in five key areas:
-
Building modern, sustainable economies
-
Uplifting our defence and security relationship
-
Working together in and with the Pacific
-
Upholding shared global values; and
-
Sustaining our people-to-people relationships.
Work is well underway within the Roadmap’s framework. Since 2023, we have held two iterations of the ANZMIN meeting among our respective Foreign and Defence Ministers – a first for New Zealand.
We also have held two iterations of a similar “2+2” format Climate and Finance Ministers meeting – the first of its type in the world. What this does is it expands the definition of our economic relationship beyond trade and toward creating a partnership in our climate-related economic transitions.
We are working together closely on the Pacific and on a range of defence and operational matters, including joint transits in the South China Sea and supporting disaster relief and law and order in the region.
The relationship is more than the Roadmap, of course. We have had a high tempo of Ministerial and Prime Ministerial engagements over the past three years.
At last count, I have attended no fewer than six separate formal leader-level meetings over that time [with three different New Zealand Prime Ministers!].
We’ve taken positive steps to bring our people closer together, particularly the launching of the accelerated Pathway to Citizenship for New Zealand citizens in Australia. In the 18 months to the end of January this year, this has seen more than 78,000 Kiwis take up Australian citizenship.
I could continue listing, but my main message is that we are now entering a new phase of the Trans-Tasman relationship. It is now a more mature, businesslike partnership between two partners who are equals.
Rather than being constrained by the size differential between us, we are now more actively deploying our unique skills and strengths. We complement each other in a genuinely shared effort to navigate the global challenges we face.
Now is not the time, however, to rest on our laurels. I would describe what we have now as a very good start.
To me, the past couple of years has demonstrated what we can achieve, and how fast we can move, when we have the will to do so. It has also underscored for me that there is scope for us to do much more together.
If this is the art of the possible, then the possibilities are great.
It is now for us all to bring our ambition and imagination to the fore, to be prepared to invest the effort and resources needed to create a genuinely unique Trans-Tasman partnership for the 21st Century.
This is not a task for governments alone. Governments can do a lot, but ultimately the animus, the energy and the sustainment of any relationship between two countries lies with those beyond government.
It is for business, for civil society, for academia, for individuals to imagine, and then to bring to life, the kind of relationship we want – indeed, the kind of partnership we need.
It falls to my successor, Daniel Sloper, to shepherd the relationship through this next phase. It will be challenging, and at the same time it will be exciting. And I am confident that Daniel – who is a highly experienced and capable diplomat – is truly up to the task.
In a matter of days, I will hand the mantle over to Daniel and depart these shores.
In leaving, my reflection will be that the past three years have been among the most rewarding of my professional life.
Much of that has been because of the great friendships and professional partnerships I have formed with all of you here in this room today. For that, I thank you all.
I leave my role here more convinced than ever that what we have as two nations is something special and unique. I wish you all every success in your endeavours for the future. I shall be watching and cheering you on and – if I can – trying to help in some small way.
Thank you.