Is it just me, or did anyone else notice what a contrast it was watching Christopher Luxon cracking jokes with Anthony Albanese, compared to what it was like when Jacinda Ardern visited Australia?

For all her kindness and communication when she was Prime Minister, she would use those trips to Australia to give then–Prime Minister Scott Morrison a tongue-lashing—usually over the 501 deportees, which was pointless because the Aussies weren’t going to change their minds.

This weekend, though, was a bit of a love-in.

And that’s despite the fact that we’ve done something that could genuinely have upset the Aussies.

Because Nicola Willis has probably gone a bit too hard, having cracks at them for their capital gains tax changes in their budget—which they’re very sensitive about, because they’re copping huge blowback.

And yet…it was no drama.

Albanese wrote it off as cheekiness.

And then, instead of yet another trans-Tasman drama, he was cracking jokes with Luxon about Kiwi immigrants.

They were taking turns going first with the questions, and they were affirming each other—welcoming closer ties, strengthening shared resilience.

It’s turning into a bit of a cliché thing to say now, but Luxon is in his element overseas.

He sounded every bit the statesman—someone who has thought deeply about the degrading state of international affairs and what New Zealand needs to do to weather the coming storm.

And I thought, as I listened to him pitch how kick-ass Australia and New Zealand are going to be, that he was doing a better job of selling Australasia to the world than the Prime Minister of Australia was.

He’s a big-ideas guy—selling his country and his region and getting on with people is his party trick.

Isn’t that a better strategy, when you think about it, than always fighting with your only ally?

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