PM admits issues with data-sharing

Our Prime Minister admits there will be issues with a criminal information sharing scheme that will be trialled in Australia.

A round of meetings were held between Australian and New Zealand ministers in Melbourne over the weekend with a number of promises aimed at drawing our relationship with Australia closer together.

The Australian Federal, Queensland and New Zealand governments are working on ways to make it easier for future employers to check criminal backgrounds.

Employers on both sides of the Tasman would be able to check a prospective employees criminal past.

It follows a case where a New Zealander whose convictions weren't revealed went on to allegedly defraud Queensland Health of millions of dollars.

A six month trial has been agreed to on data-sharing and if successful, the system will be rolled out across all Australian states.

John Key says at the moment we do share information on criminal history but it is clunky and relies on the honesty of the person who ticks the form at the airport.

"Over time it may well be a relatively simple thing to integrate the two systems, there are privacy issues we need to preserve and there'll obviously be costs and other legal issues," he told Newstalk ZB's Susan Wood.

Justice Minister Judith Collins says the logistics need to be worked out because it's not as simple as just providing direct access for authorities to each other's databases.

"There's issues around the information that's provided because the police checks quite often are not just about criminal records, it may be able known associates and others so apparently there's a bit more to it than just pressing the button."

Ms Collins says employers can already get access to criminal records, with people's permission, but the system takes time.

"There's lots of Kiwis who go over to Australia and lots of Australians come to New Zealand, I think it should be relatively easy to be able to check that you are who you are and you've done what you say you've done and that you haven't been in prison when you say you weren't."

Employment lawyer Kathryn Beck doesn't think people's rights will be undermined by the plan and says people will still have to give consent by signing a form to say police can provide that information.

But she says at the moment obtaining that information takes a long time.

"My understanding of what they're talking about is that they're hoping to free that up and make that a lot easier, so once they have the consent to d the check, that check will come through a lot quicker and will be a lot more efficient."

There's also assurances from the Government that we won't lose our sovereignty as we do more to move our economy closer together with Australia.

Finance Minister Bill English says both governments have asked their respective Productivity Commissions to look at new ways of dealing with the rest of the world, together.

He says that's because we've been doing things the same way for a number of years but the world is changing rapidly.

"This is an opportunity to stand back a bit and see whether we should rethink that, particularly the way we're going about it, particularly given the big opportunities in Asia through the next 10 to 15 years."

Mr English says internationally we are seen as the same country, bundled together by the rest of the world who see our currency and government bonds as if they are the same.

"For individual businesses of course we're quite different so we've just got to find and keep looking for the right balance between what's going to help our own national interest in New Zealand and what opportunities there are for a common good."

He says our nations have been doing things the same way for years, but over the past 10, there have been a lot of changes in the way we travel and do business.

John Key says emerging Asia represents a seismic shift in world economic power and we need to make the most of the opportunities that offers.

The leaders have vowed to work together in every way possible to do that.

Meanwhile a defence expert says any move towards closer defence relations with Australia is welcome.

An Australia-New Zealand Defence Relationship Framework was also announced during the visit.

It includes closer co-operation on developing and buying military hardware and services.

Dr Lance Beath of Victoria University says there will be cost advantages.

"I think the underlying idea is either to try to achieve more bang for the same buck or, if we're a Treasury official, probably the same bang for less bucks because I believe we're entering an era where we need to increase our defence capability."

Dr Beath says the last successful joint acquisition, the ANZAC ship procurement programme, saved New Zealand substantial sums of money.

Overall it was a successful visit and start to the year for our Prime Minister, who comes away with a number of promises to work together in increasingly closer ways, from defence relations to cyber security.

But the visit was overshadowed, on the Australian side anyway, by the backlash from Julia Gillard's security scare late last week.

There was one issue hanging over the leaders, that of making it easier for Kiwis to gain residency.

Both were reluctant to talk about it and all Mr Key came away with was a vague promise by the Aussies to continue working on it.