Luxon, Albanese make the most of Q'town
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's dance card was full to bursting in Queenstown over the weekend.
Mr Albanese — who quipped he and his fiancee Jodie Haydon were "just a couple more Australians" visiting the resort on Saturday — spent about 24 hours in the Wakatipu, where he and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held their annual leaders' meeting, covered by a huge contingent of Australasian media.
Mr Albanese was met at Queenstown Airport by a greeting party which included Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Glyn Lewers and Southland MP Joseph Mooney, before being whisked to Taramea, a private meeting house built by Queenstown entrepreneur Rod Drury — the leaders' meeting was the first event to be held there.
The Australian contingent was welcomed with a pōwhiri by Ngāi Tahu, which Mr Albanese said was "very moving".
Ngai Tahu representatives included Ta Tipene O'Regan and Te Rūnaka o Ōtākou upoko Edward Ellison, while New Zealand actor and producer Cliff Curtis was also present, as an invited guest of the iwi.
Mr Albanese said it was his third trip to New Zealand as prime minister, but his first trip to Queenstown in the modern era.
"The last time I was in Queenstown, I came with a backpack on last century — literally.
"I came here as a traveller to this extraordinarily beautiful part of not just your nation, but the world.
"If there is a better airport to land in, I have not been in it, and I've been in a few over the years."
After closed-door talks, which traversed subjects such as trade and defence issues and opportunities, the war in Gaza and Australia's 501 deportation policy, the leaders told media underpinning all of it was the continued close relationship between Australia and New Zealand.
Mr Albanese said the two countries were each other's biggest tourism market and the transtasman relationship was built on "deep understanding, genuine respect and true affection".
"[It is] a relationship between peoples, not just a relationship between nations," Mr Albanese said.
"In a time of global uncertainty, the certainty and strength of this bond has never been more important."
Mr Luxon noted the pair knew each other before they entered politics and said their personal friendship was "emblematic of the mateship between our two great countries".
"It's an iron-clad bond, uniquely defined by our respective histories and things that we celebrate about ourselves — practicality, humility and a good sense of humour, for one."
He said the conversation during the leaders' meeting highlighted both men shared the same assessment of the problems but were also "firm about the agency we have to navigate a complex world".
"The close bonds between Australia and New Zealand provide us both with a bedrock of certainty, of predictability and quite frankly the knowledge that we have one another's backs.
"For New Zealand, Australia is our only formal ally and family like no other country."
Following the leaders' meeting, the two prime ministers travelled to Stoneridge Estate, overlooking Lake Hayes, for the Australia-New Zealand Leaders' Forum Meeting.
There, they met representatives from a host of heavy-hitting businesses on either side of the Tasman, including CyberCX, Beca, Ampol, Qantas, Genesis Energy and ASB Bank, after which the prime ministers and their partners enjoyed a private dinner, which the Otago Daily Times understands took place at Arrowtown's Ayrburn hospitality precinct.
Yesterday morning, they again braved freezing temperatures to lay wreaths at the Arrowtown Cenotaph, on Soldiers Hill, accompanied by Mr Lewers and Arrowtown Returned and Services' Association president Rosemary Chalmers.
Speaking to reporters in Arrowtown, Mr Albanese brushed off calls to impose sanctions on Israel for blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, calling the demands a "slogan".
He also repeated his government's call for Israel to abandon its plan to occupy the entirety of the Gaza Strip.
"We called for an immediate ceasefire. We called for the release of hostages and we called for the unimpeded entry of aid into Gaza. We have a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding there. And the idea that it can just be continued is completely unacceptable."
But he refused to answer a question about whether Australia would impose further sanctions on Israel as demanded by the Greens and other pro-Palestinian campaigners.
"What we need to do here is to have very clear statements and actions by the Australian government that make a difference, rather than respond to a slogan on a protest."
Finally the leaders and their partners enjoyed a scenic helicopter flight and mountain landing with Over The Top Helicopters, where they dug in to a transtasman-themed pavlova, among other things, decorated with kiwifruit, strawberries and Tim Tams, before Mr Albanese and Ms Haydon left New Zealand.
tracey.roxburgh@odt.co.nz
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