Inside Parliament: Has Jacinda Ardern managed to rebuild NZ's relationship with Australia?

March 9, 2018

The Inside Parliament analysts think the PM said "all the right things" in her recent meeting with Malcolm Turnbull.

Jacinda Ardern's recent trip to meet her Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull was a case of attempting to rebuild a relationship according to Inside Parliament's Katie Bradford and guest Stacey Kirk.

The Kiwi Prime Minister's remarks on refugees at the Manus Island detention centre had caused a rift between the two nations that hung over her first trip to Australia as PM.

"She had to say all the right things and she did, but I think there is still a serious amount of distrust after her rhetoric on deportees," Kirk, a senior political reporter at Fairfax mused.

1 NEWS political reporter, Bradford agreed that although progress was made there will still be some underlying issues in the relationship.

"They stand there smiling like their best mates and all of that, but behind the scenes there will still be concerns amongst them," she said.

Both analysts agreed that Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters had helped repair ties between New Zealand and Australia.

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