I think the penny has dropped that the All Blacks aren't automatically just going to be the best team in the world.

I've been round Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and China in the last few months and the message that I've been taking is that New Zealand is building an up market dynamic into a connected economy. And that we are not the old-fashioned, ship mutton kind of product the people associate their export in work.

I don't know that you're ever going to persuade New Zealanders that they're not going to own their own homes and I'm not going to try.

Senator Obama will be taking office at a critical juncture. There are many pressing challenges facing the international community, including the global financial crisis and global warming. We look forward to working closely with President-elect Obama and his team to address these challenges.

I think that generally New Zealand is respected for the positions it takes because it thinks them through.

Of course as a small country you're not necessarily in the strongest negotiating position unless you're negotiating with other small countries.

It's fair to say that, for much of my lifetime, New Zealand certainly was a property-owning democracy and working people, ordinary people, had assets.