Australians have too long undervalued and taken for granted their relationship with New Zealand, John Howard says.

The former Australian prime minister, speaking at the Oxford Union, bemoaned his compatriots’ attitude to their transtasman cobbers, reports the AAP, as published at the Herald Sun.

He reportedly said:

I worked very hard to get our two countries closer together …

I think too many Australians take the Anzac relationship for granted. I think many Australians are condescending towards New Zealanders.

On Helen Clark:

Helen Clark and I were a long way apart philosophically … [but] we worked together very closely and on a number of occasions she was very helpful to me.

And on John Key:

I like John Key, I think he’s a terrific bloke and he’s doing a tremendous job.

He didn’t apparently say Australians should stop making fun of New Zealanders, but the caption writer at the Herald Sun has chosen to suggest as much (see above), with a characteristic whirr of Ocker snark. Maybe they were thinking of this. Or am I being oversensitive?

The headline in the Australian’s version of the same AAP story is intriguing, too:

He didn’t just speak about New Zealand. For the rest, see here.