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NZ and Australia 'very close friends' - Gillard


Australia and New Zealand are very close friends and will build on strategic economic growth, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said today.

NZPA and NBR staff
Tue, 15 Feb 2011

Australia and New Zealand are very close friends and will build on strategic economic growth, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said today.

In a brief media session before she went to a transtasman business lunch, Ms Gillard said the two countries shared a strategic outlook, common goals and a long-standing Anzac tradition.

She said the countries also shared "a partnership based on our economic integration".

She was met at the airport by Prime Minister John Key and as she was about to go lunch said that she would talk about the continued integration of the economies of Australia and New Zealand.

She said the economic partnership between Australia and New Zealand was the closest in the world.

"And we are seeking to build on it."

Ms Gillard, a former Australian minister of education, is to visit an Auckland primary school with Mr Key in the suburb of Glendowie later today.

She said education and the creation of opportunity was very dear to her heart.

Yesterday the Green Party objected to Ms Gillard addressing a formal session of Parliament, but she said she was looking forward to speaking to members of Parliament in an informal session of the house.

NZPA and NBR staff
Tue, 15 Feb 2011
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NZ and Australia 'very close friends' - Gillard
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