New Zealand will mount a trade mission to Brisbane so domestic firms can contest procurement tied to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay and Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell announced the mission after the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ Meeting in Auckland.
The Beehive release puts the Games programme of investment and expenditure at an estimated A$15 billion. That figure sits against Queensland venue infrastructure already budgeted near A$7.1 billion for 17 new and upgraded venues, with villages and operations pushing combined public envelopes into the mid-teens of billions of Australian dollars.
The commercial path for New Zealand suppliers runs through the Australia New Zealand Government Procurement Agreement (ANZGPA). In their October 2025 Monarto joint statement, Ministers Farrell and McClay reaffirmed that ANZGPA creates a single competitive procurement market and a level playing field for Australian and New Zealand suppliers.
For New Zealand contractors, engineers, food exporters, technology firms and tourism operators, the mission is the practical conversion of those treaty rights into tender access before peak build years. NZTE and sector bodies will need clear KPIs on introductions, shortlists and contract value if the mission is to justify the diplomatic effort.
Ministers said they had accelerated work toward a more ambitious Single Economic Market (SEM). They welcomed implementation of SEM Strengthening Initiatives and released a joint statement after the Auckland meeting. McClay said the governments had taken on board trans-Tasman business feedback and would work with the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF) to implement its proposals.
Two-way trade underpins the stakes. The Government’s 2 September 2026 pre-meeting release stated that two-way trade with Australia was worth $35 billion in 2025 and involved around 25,000 trans-Tasman businesses. MFAT records two-way trade at $32.76 billion in 2024 and describes Australia as New Zealand’s most important trading partner.
Bloomberg reported exports to Australia reached a record NZ$9.58 billion in the year to September 2025, briefly overtaking the United States as New Zealand’s second-largest goods export market. ACITI puts 2024 two-way trade near A$37.8 billion and two-way investment stocks near A$290 billion.
CER, signed on 28 March 1983, remains the legal base. Tariffs and quotas on virtually all goods were gone by 1990. The 1988/89 Trade in Services Protocol liberalised most services. MFAT notes more than 40 supporting agreements, including mutual recognition, FSANZ food standards, investment and double-tax settings.
The SEM agenda, launched from 2004 treasurer-level work and framed in 2009 principles, targets behind-the-border barriers so firms face no significant policy, standards or regulatory frictions across the Tasman. DFAT describes the goal as seamless regulatory operations for business.
The operational plumbing is the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement (TTMRA) and joint standards. Leaders in August 2024 tasked agencies to reinvigorate TTMRA with an industry-consulted work plan. At Monarto in October 2025, ministers agreed to strengthen TTMRA and advance SEM reforms, and backed a new Heads of Agreement between Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand.
Standards New Zealand reported in August 2025 that the Heads of Agreement modernises joint arrangements built on more than 2,000 existing joint standards. By February 2026 a Development and Distribution Agreement removed commissioning fees for New Zealand industry on joint standards work, halted further dejointing, reconnected dozens of standards and supported adoption of 57 further international digital-technology standards.
Those steps cut a real compliance cost for New Zealand manufacturers and builders who already treat Australia as a home market. MBIE and Australian counterparts have developed a joint regulatory coherence work plan aimed at stronger TTMRA operation and greater use of international standards.
Continuity matters more than communiqués. The Auckland outcome follows Rotorua 2024, Leaders’ meetings between Prime Ministers Luxon and Albanese, the September 2025 ANZLF in Canberra, Monarto October 2025, and the June 2026 Noosa Leaders’ Meeting.
At Noosa, leaders restated the SEM objective: no significant barriers from differences in policies, standards and regulations. They welcomed ANZLF proposals on regulatory coherence, common standards, supply chains, climate adaptation, defence industry and science and technology.
This is about making it simpler for businesses to trade, invest and grow, not just between our two countries but across the wider region.
McClay made that statement after the October 2025 Monarto CER meeting. The October 2025 joint statement also tasked officials to explore SEM-style approaches regionally while holding the bilateral core. Ministers restated support for WTO reform, CPTPP, RCEP, APEC and the upgraded AANZFTA.
Australia remains New Zealand’s largest international visitor market. MBIE’s International Visitor Survey for the year ended June 2025 recorded Australian visitor spend of $3.5 billion. Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston met Farrell on growth priorities during the Auckland visit.
In the 2 September 2026 pre-meeting release, McClay said working together was more important than ever amid global economic volatility, and that Australia is typically the first export destination for New Zealand companies. Upston said Australia is New Zealand’s largest international visitor market, with tourism links supporting businesses and communities on both sides of the Tasman.
Implementation will decide whether SEM language reduces red tape or multiplies working groups. Measurable TTMRA fixes, a published standards pipeline with rejoined and new joint standards, and mission KPIs on Brisbane tenders won are the tests. Without those line items, deeper integration stays a press-release asset rather than a productivity one for the 25,000 firms already trading across the Tasman.
