Following a fruitful trade mission to Melbourne and Sydney that featured more than 30 New Zealand enterprises, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will lead New Zealand’s ministerial team to the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF) in Sydney today.
The Great Acceleration: Emerging Stronger Together is the event’s theme for this year.
“Building on our trans-Tasman trade and economic links is fundamental to ensuring New Zealanders’ economic security both now, and into the future,” Jacinda Ardern said.
“By bringing over 250 business leaders and elected officials from across the Tasman together, the ANZLF presents an excellent opportunity for us to hear from businesses on how we can further co-operate, support and assist business to thrive as part of our recovery.
“Engagement between government and business is essential to ensure our settings promote sustainable and equitable economic growth, critical to achieving economic security for New Zealanders, and those in our wider region,” Jacinda Ardern said.
“As a Cabinet, engagement with the business sector, including those across the Tasman, is important to us and should be taken seriously, and I’m pleased to be here with a wide range of New Zealand Ministers who have prioritised their participation, and are eager to establish new relationships, while building on current ones,” Jacinda Ardern said.
Ministers Grant Robertson, Damien O’Connor, Stuart Nash, Willie Jackson, Megan Wood, Ayesha Verrall, and James Shaw will accompany the Prime Minister to the ANZLF where they will meet with their Australian counterparts and take part in meetings with business leaders on a range of topics.
They include indigenous businesses, re-connecting through trade, the future of health, challenges and opportunities related to infrastructure, re-connecting through travel and tourism, trans-Tasman innovation opportunities, labour shortages and the future of work, challenges related to economic growth post-COVID-19, and cooperation on climate change.
“Australia is our second largest trading partner, with two-way trade accounting for over $22 billion in the year to December 2021, and is the first export market many New Zealand companies look to,” Jacinda Ardern said.
“I look forward to hearing the outcomes of these discussions, particularly as Prime Minister Albanese and I will be talking tomorrow about deepening our economic ties as we look towards the 40th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER) in 2023,” Jacinda Ardern said.
The Forum, which is typically conducted every 18 months, last recently took place in Auckland in 2019 before to COVID-19.
Separate from the ANZLF, the first official Australia New Zealand Leaders Meeting will be held on July 8 in Sydney between Prime Minister Ardern and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.