The difference between power and influence has been a topic of debate for decades. Last year, Australia led an international peace-enforcement mission to East Timor and demonstrated a considerable military clout in the region. By any objective criterion, it is far more formidable a power than New Zealand. Australia's population is five times bigger, its economy six times bigger and its defense capability is similarly more robust. Yet arguably, over the past few years New Zealand has been the more influential of the trans-Tasman twins in world affairs.
Our claim of superior New Zealand influence is something of a paradox. But consider the following examples.
In 1989, Australia's former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser campaigned to be the secretary general of the Commonwealth, but lost. Ten years later New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon contested the same post and won.