Address to NZIIA Wairarapa Branch - HE Harinder Sidhu AM
‘A partnership in action’
17 October 2024
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e rau rangatira mā,
Tēnā koutou katoa
Ko au te māngai o te whenua moemoeā
Ko Harinder Sidhu tōkū ingoa
Ngā mihi mahana kia koutou katoa.
Introduction
I am delighted to be with you all this evening.
I’d like to thank the NZIIA Wairarapa Branch for inviting me to make the very windy drive across the Remutaka Ranges to be here this evening, and for hosting tonight’s event. My thanks especially to Richard Jackson for your warm introduction and hospitality.
I’ve visited the Wairarapa on a number of occasions during my tenure – mostly to enjoy the sunny weather and beautiful wine country – but this the first time I’ve had the opportunity to come and speak to the NZIIA Branch.
I know many of you here tonight are retired diplomats and civil servants, people who have considerable experience in public policy and international affairs. This is perhaps unsurprising – I’m told that half of New Zealand’s public service retires to the Wairarapa!
So it is a particular pleasure to talk to this learned audience tonight about the Australia-New Zealand relationship.
To start off, I’m often struck by how little the relationship between Australia and New Zealand is actually discussed and analysed in academic discourse or broader commentary.
And I think this is because, for the most part, the relationship just works so well that it appears unexciting. We’re so alike, after all. We know each other well and we see the world the same way - mostly. Even where we have irritants, they are not showstoppers and our bonds are strong enough to go beyond them.
What I hope to establish this evening, though, is that the trans-Tasman relationship is not just important, but that it is consequential.
And in fact, given the challenges we face today, now is the time to nurture and build our relationship with our closest friend. This makes thinking intentionally and strategically about the trans Tasman relationship perhaps more important than ever.
The foundations of our partnership
I see my role as High Commissioner as being very much a steward of the bilateral relationship.
So of course the first thing I did when I arrived in Wellington over two years ago was to figure out what the starting point for the relationship was. I made three observations that I expect you can all relate to:
First, it has always been the case that we’ve enjoyed very deep people linkages across the Tasman – it’s why we refer to ‘family’ when we speak about each other. Myself included, most of us have a family member or two on the other side of the ditch.
Second, every relationship has its artefacts, the things that people point to when they try to describe it. For us it is a nostalgia about our historical links and the Anzac tradition, or banter about sport or who owns the pavlova.
My third observation was the sheer breadth of touch points between us across virtually every dimension of national life. I’m referring not just to the commercial links you might see when you walk downtown, or how often our leaders meet.
But it’s also in the way we do business as two nations. Whether it is on economic policy, tax regimes, immigration policy, tourism, emerging technology – on almost any given issue, we each look to the other for ideas or ways to connect.
There are particular challenges which arise from a relationship as broad as ours.
For a start, it can be very difficult to decide what matters most and where it is best to focus your energy or resources. You spread yourself too thin, because you are trying to do everything all at once.
There is also a very real risk that we take each other for granted. We know that the other will always be there, so we don’t really invest the time, thought and effort we might do otherwise to move the relationship forward. The risk of us drifting apart as we are preoccupied elsewhere becomes quite real.
That’s not a risk we can afford in the world we inhabit today.
A challenging global outlook
I don’t need to spell out to this audience the economic and strategic challenges facing everyone, but particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, today.
Australia’s Government has said we find ourselves in the most challenging strategic circumstances since the Second World War. In the words of Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, we now find ourselves in a ‘state of permanent contest’ in the Pacific.
We face multiple headwinds to our economic wellbeing, our social cohesion and to our security.
We see war and conflict. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has led to a war that is now well in its second year.
In the Middle East, both Australia and New Zealand have repeatedly called for a ceasefire. Just last week in Laos the two Prime Ministers met in the margins of the East Asia Summit to discuss their deep concerns at the escalation of conflict in the Middle East. The global community has made clear that this destructive cycle must stop.
China’s challenges to international law and unsafe behaviour of Chinese vessels in the South China Sea risk miscalculation and escalation.
Climate change and sea level rise raise existential and economic risks to all countries but particularly to island nations in the Pacific, threatening food and water security.
It is becoming ever more difficult for countries to meet their economic priorities in a world of rising protectionism and threats to supply chains.
Technology brings great benefits but also risks to our institutions, democracies and economies through, for example, cyber attack or mis- and dis-information.
In short, we now live in a world of multiple, concurrent and overlapping crises and challenges to our national interest for which there is no single, neat solution.
In meeting these challenges, Australia is harnessing all our tools of statecraft. We are mindful of all our national assets – the resilience of our multicultural society, the strength of our economy and the power of our democratic institutions and rule of law. At the same time, we are harnessing our diplomatic effort and strengthening our defence and security capability.
As we confront a world of unprecedented disruptions, we are reminded of the value of having partners we know, trust and can depend on. None of us can face the headwinds alone.
This is where the Trans-Tasman relationship has increasing salience.
Australia counts New Zealand among our closest partners.
Australia and New Zealand each bring to our partnership unique view points, skills, ideas and capabilities.
Beneath it all lies a level of genuine trust that is rare in an increasingly contested international environment. That trust is a strategic asset.
So there is a strong case for both our countries to look at our relationship with fresh eyes, and to consider how we can face these challenges together.
This, as it happens, is what is already happening now.
Moving the trans-Tasman relationship to a new stage.
As a first step, our two Prime Ministers agreed to a Trans Tasman Road Map to 2035 in August last year, reaffirmed in December.
The Road Map sets out the five highest priorities where Australia and New Zealand should focus our efforts over the coming decade, to put us in the best position to meet global challenges in that time.
Its aim is, in the words of Prime Minister Albanese, to make our partnership “fit for the modern era”.
Those five priorities set out in the Road Map are in:
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Modernising and streamlining our economic partnership
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Deepening our alliance and cooperation on defence and security
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Working together as partners in the Pacific
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Upholding and advocating for our shared global values; and
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Supporting the connections between our people.