ANZAC partners take the next step

The first time I went there I told a New Zealand friend of mine that I was related (albeit distantly) to Sir Edmund Hillary, the amiable Auckland bee keeper who famously climbed Mount Everest.

My friend said: “Do you know how highly Ed Hillary is thought of here? He’s bigger here than Bradman is in Australia! Make sure you make that known whilst you’re in New Zealand, and also Nepal. That will make up for you being a dreaded Aussie.”

So I did and he was right.

But despite this Trans-Tasman teasing, we know, particularly on ANZAC Day, that Aussies and Kiwis really are brothers and sisters in arms.

We have a shared history, we’ve been together in the trenches in wartime, we have shared backgrounds, and we’re down here together geographically. Our relationship is kept lively by people ties through frequent Trans-Tasman immigration and a fierce but somehow at the same time, friendly sporting rivalry.

But what is the relationship like commercially across the ditch? From an Aussie point of view, New Zealand is a very significant market, particularly in terms of exporting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

New evidence from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that there are over 17,000 Australian businesses exporting goods across the Tasman, with many Aussie businesses getting their start there as a springboard into Singapore, ASEAN, the Pacific and beyond.

It’s no small beer though, New Zealand is Australia’s 6th largest export destination and the two-way trade relationship is worth A$22 billion (NZ$27 billion) and two-way investment is worth over A$93 billion (NZ$112 billion).

From a Kiwi, point of view too, Australia matters and matters a lot. According to Gareth Chaplin, Chief Economist from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise: “Over 23 per cent of New Zealand exports go to Australia, while Australia takes 18 per cent of New Zealand’s imports; what happens in Australia economically is a big deal to us.”

And according to Chaplin, whilst New Zealand’s economic structure is very different to Australia, as New Zealand is not as mining focused, that’s changing too. “We’re getting some action in resources, even in coal, and we’re becoming more integrated in Australia’s resources sector. There’s still competition in agriculture and services but there’s collaboration in resources.”

Of course, New Zealand and Australia are very proud of many firsts in the world – many of which of course, began in New Zealand.

Over a century ago, New Zealand and Australia were the first countries to establish votes for women, and workplace arbitration and even lesser known but useful innovations like eftpos were also started in New Zealand (along with bungee jumping of course).