If, to borrow Paul Keating’s description, Australia is the arse end of the world, New Zealand is the arse end of the arse end.  The Lange government having burned New Zealand’s ANZUS bridges nearly forty years ago, and with a minuscule defence force, Australia is her only formal ally.

China may take almost a third of New Zealand’s exports to Australia’s 13 per cent, but in terms of proximity, similar British heritage, Closer Economic Relations, rugby and cricket, and now the Trans-Tasman bubble, we are family, and family should always come first.