When Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison meet on Sunday it will be 15 months since they were last in the same room. While the global pandemic seems a natural focus of their talks, the two countries also have plenty of domestic differences to sort out, writes political editor Jo Moir.
Analysis: There’s plenty Australia and New Zealand have in common but when Scott Morrison steps off his private jet in Queenstown he will have left behind a ballooning Covid-19 community outbreak in Victoria.
Jacinda Ardern on the other hand will make her way down south on an Air NZ flight squeezed between holiday-makers and journalists.
The silver lining, of course, is being in charge of what is for now, at least, a Covid-free country.
Whether Morrison would actually make the trip has been in doubt over the last 48 hours after it was revealed he had visited Covid-hotpsot, Melbourne, last week.
On Thursday a new Health Act order was enforced that meant anyone who has been in the greater Melbourne area between May 20 and 25 has to self-isolate and get tested for Covid-19.
That would have impacted Morrison’s planned visit.
But an updated position on Friday that requires travellers who visited Victoria within that timeframe to have a negative pre-departure test before flying, means the Australian contingent can get tested and land in Queenstown, without any need to self-isolate.
The fact Ardern and Morrison can meet in person, without masks or social distancing, and share a meal and mingle with local tourism operators is an achievement in itself, given how accustomed to Zoom meetings most world leaders have become.
They were even due to sit in the packed Sir John Davies Oval stadium to watch the Highlanders v Rebels Super Rugby match. That’s been moved to Sydney, where the Rebels are currently based, after the travel suspension stopped them flying to Queenstown.
The situation in Melbourne will be on Morrison’s mind throughout his 30-hour stopover - a last minute decision to pull pin because of the optics of galavanting around Queenstown while some of his own citizens are under seven-day lockdown wouldn't be completely unreasonable even at this late point.
Both countries (and leaders) have dealt with a lot over the last 15 months - the ongoing job of eliminating Covid, the trans-Tasman bubble opening, the safety mechanisms to shut it down swiftly if needed, how to start opening back up to the world, vaccination rollout and helping the Pacific with its own.
All of that and more will be traversed when the pair sit down on Monday, probably from a reflective perspective as much as looking forward.
Covid-19 dominates so many political meetings and forums in 2021, but that wasn’t always the case.
When Ardern delivered the news in February last year that Covid had entered New Zealand borders, she was stood on the lawn of Kirribilli House, overlooking the Sydney Harbour.
Yet, that wasn’t the biggest news story of the day.
Ardern had just stuck it to Morrison while standing right next to him in a joint press conference following their bilateral meeting.
It was Morrison’s handling of deportees that Ardern was hot under the collar about when she declared “do not deport your people, and your problems’’.
Nothing about the deportees has changed, in fact as soon as Australia was able to resume the 501 flights across the Tasman, it did so.
For that reason it won’t come as a surprise - more a broken record - when Ardern yet again raises the unfairness of the policy.
On the international stage, climate change, the Commonwealth and the new US administration under President Joe Biden, will be on the agenda.
To a certain extent these formal talks are more show than substance.
It’s well-known Ardern and Morrison regularly text and phone each other on all sorts of issues.
Those exchanges (without High Commissioners, Prime Ministerial officials, chiefs of staff, and foreign policy advisors in the room) would be where the real work is done, and the leaders can make their position clear without any watering down.
It’s tensions closer to home that are more likely to be a focus at the bilateral meeting on Monday, specifically New Zealand’s relationship with China and ructions in the Pacific.
There’s been criticism out of Australia about the coziness between New Zealand and China and suggestions the Government here is prioritising the Chinese dollar over human rights concerns.
In the Pacific, the ongoing fallout from the Samoan election will be front of mind along with Fiji’s upcoming election.
Add to that the Micronesian nations threatening to pull out of the Pacific Islands Forum, of which New Zealand and Australia are both members.
The preparation work that goes into these long-standing meetings is significant.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Chris Seed was in Canberra last week laying down the ground work for the leaders’ meeting.
Likewise, a team from the Australian High Commission have been based in Queenstown all week in the lead-up to their Prime Minister’s arrival.
There's been plenty of speculation about the relationship between the two countries being strained of late.
At an official level there is push-back on that and much pointing to the fact Australia and New Zealand are formal allies and there's no two countries with quite the same bond anywhere else in the world.
While that's true, the heated language Ardern has been increasingly using over the last two years doesn't help put out the illusion of a fire.
The last joint press conference in Sydney was described as extraordinary scenes from media on both sides of the ditch.
Just how close that friendship actually is will be tested once again in a much chillier Queenstown.
