It’s what we in Australia call “pulling your head in”.
It’s what happens when some drongo at the footy or in the pub is mouthing off and everyone else is silently cracking the shits with them. Pretty soon, they get told to “pull yer head in”. Being invariably all mouth, no trousers, they usually do.
It looks like Jacinda Ardern has pulled her head in – at least for now.
Jacinda Ardern has thrown her support behind Australia in its trade dispute with China on barley tariffs, in a show of unity against Beijing during Scott Morrison’s two-day trip to New Zealand.
Which is a big turnaround from her years of ear-bashing on everything from Kiwi crims to climate change.
After strained relations between the trans-Tasman neighbours over China, the New Zealand Prime Minister welcomed her counterpart to Queenstown on Sunday and declared her country would stand with Australia as “family” amid increasing global uncertainty.
She said sovereign nations such as Australia and New Zealand would not always see issues in the same way, but “in this increasingly complex geostrategic environment, family is incredibly important”.
“And Australia, you are our family,” she told Mr Morrison at a business reception in the New Zealand tourism hub.
Ardern’s new-found enthusiasm comes hard on the heels of her media cheerleaders hissing and spitting across the Tasman that our two countries are no longer “friends”. A claim that no doubt baffled and infuriated as many Kiwis as Australians.
Naturally, a Trans-Tasman knees up is complete without the sort of eye-rolling pandering that would make a roomful of ratepayers groan.
Mr Morrison and his wife Jenny were welcomed to Queenstown with a traditional Maori greeting, including the “hongi” touching of noses with Ms Ardern and her husband Clarke Gayford.
In Australia, it would be a “Welcome to Country”, doubtless with some token “Aunty” or “Uncle” in a possum-skin cloak with the price tag still dangling from it, waving some smoking gum leaves – before trousering their four-figure fee.
(And, yes, someone needs to inform the Aussie journalist that the Red Wedding of the Century hasn’t actually happened yet.)
Ardern seems to be willing to risk exchanging the head-pats from China for a wave of the rolled-up newspaper. She’s also not the only one pulling their head in.
Earlier, New Zealand Trade Minister Damien O’Connor revealed the country would become a party to Australia’s World Trade Organisation dispute with China over its punitive 80 per cent barley tariffs on Australian imports.
“New Zealand is participating in this dispute as a third party because it raises systemic issues of importance to the effective functioning of the multilateral rules-based trading system,” Mr O’Connor said.
Thanks for showing Australia some respect, Damien.
For Australia’s part, Scott Morrison is adamant that it’s all no worries.
Australian fears that New Zealand was “wobbly” on China were eased when Ms Ardern delivered a speech this month criticising China’s human rights record.
Mr Morrison denied the visit was a patch-up exercise because New Zealand was soft on China.
Of course, this is all just the smile-and-wave for the cameras. No doubt more “corrosive” words will be exchanged out of sight of the press.
Mr Morrison and Ms Ardern will lay a wreath on Monday at a Queenstown war memorial before closed-door talks.
He will also meet Opposition Leader Judith Collins before returning to Australia.
The Australian
Let’s see how long Ardern keeps her head pulled in, once the heat is off. That’s the thing about a loudmouth: they can rarely help themselves.
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