Transtasman Political Letter – June 12 Digest

June 12, 2008

Will a high-powered Aust delegation do more than pay lip service to the NZ relationship?...New chance to add some bricks to the single economic market structure...Parliament gets back to work, some knotty problems to unravel with Climate Change ETS Bill...Dunne snuggles up to Nats, as he sees election as “National’s for losing”...And the Maori Party wants cross-party Parliamentary Commission to solve petrol pump pain.

New Aust Regime Paying Lip Service To NZ.....
Fence-mending is high on the agenda of Aust’s heavyweight team of Ministers coming to this week’s Tasman Leadership Forum.

..But Leadership Forum An “Exciting Opportunity”
The Aust-NZ Leadership Forum could be the most vital in its history. Helen Clark regards it as “exciting,” not just because Aust is sending a Ministerial team unprecedented in size and composition, but because it’s a chance to break away from the stale rhetoric which bogged down previous forums, as well as the drive towards a single economic market (SEM).

Business, Environment Focus Of Aust Relationship
The broad range of issues to be discussed at the Aust NZ Leadership Forum underlines how, though often below the radar, the economic relationship has developed over the past decade.
National Keeps Its Post Election Options Open
John Key says he can negotiate post-election coalition deals with parties such as United Future or the Maori Party even if National gained enough votes to govern alone.

CAPITAL TALK
The bad odour of pending electoral defeat may be hanging around the Labour-led coalition, though defeat is not a word to be uttered in the presence of Helen Clark.

Play Of The Week: Damn The Dams
Ok, here we go again, another “power umm situation” as Energy Minister David Parker called it on Monday.

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