Climate, Pacific on agenda with Australian ministers

Climate change and the Pacific will top the agenda when Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Climate Change Minister James Shaw meet their Australian counterparts for the first such meeting of its kind in Wellington.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Climate Change

Minister Chris Bowen will arrive in the capital today for the first so-called ‘‘two by two’’ meeting, a structure set up between former prime minister Jacinda Ardern and current Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The Government will be looking to capitalise on the reinvigorated relationships since the Albanese Labor Government took the treasury benches in Canberra and has taken a more active interest in the New Zealand relationship. Chalmers and Robertson, who are close and have known each other since before they were in Parliament, will be making common cause on a number of issues.

These will include climate change, climate adaptation – after Australia’s floods and bushfires of the past few years and New Zealand’s more recent floods and cyclones – the 40th anniversary of

Closer Economic Relations and both nations’ economic engagement in the Pacific.

‘‘This is a really good opportunity to sit down and compare notes and talk about the areas where we think there’s going to be future co-operation that will be fruitful,’’ Robertson told The Post.

‘‘It is great to have somebody that you can have a chat to, and we catch up regularly.’’

The nation’s two economic stewards will also make common cause around inflation. While the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has signalled it thinks it is at the end of its interest rate tightening cycle, the Reserve Bank of Australia has signalled it will continue to tighten its interest rates.

The Australian official cash rate target currently sits at 4.1% compared with New Zealand’s 5.5%, but inflation is running hotter than New Zealand’s at 7%.