"I am confident our close and critical relationship with Australia will continue unchecked with the change of Prime Minister."
Australia has its fifth Prime Minister in eight years after the ruling Liberal Party voted out Tony Abbott in favour of longtime rival Mr Turnbull, following months of infighting and crumbling voter support.
By the end of Mr Turnbull's first press conference as leader yesterday, Mr Key could be genuinely confident.
New Zealand had a leader whose style should be emulated, Mr Turnbull said.
"You have to be able to bring people with you by respecting their intelligence in the way you explain things. Let me point to just one international leader - John Key, for example"
Mr Key had been able to achieve significant economic reforms by doing just that: "By explaining complex issues and then making the case for them."
What you might call a good start to a political relationship that hasn't yet begun.
Finance Minister Bill English has built up quite fan club in Australia as well. He speaks often to business leaders and New Zealand has been singled out for attention by Treasurer Joe Hockey.
But if it is true that business have been organising for the leadership coup, it has been to see Mr Hockey go. They want a team more like Key and English.
The pundits say Mr Hockey is set be replaced by Scott Morrison, the social welfare minister who is seen as one of the Cabinet's best communicators.
He also has personal connections with New Zealand. He worked in Wellington in the 1990s as head of the Office of Tourism and Sport that tendered advice to Murray McCully, who was then Minister of Tourism and Sport.
The other crucial ministers in bilateral relations are Foreign Affairs and Julie Bishop will continue in that role, working closely with Mr McCully, and Trade and Andrew Robb seems likely to stay on there as well.
With New Zealand and Australia running a joint Defence training mission in Iraq for soldiers fighting Islamic State, with the Trans Pacific Partnership talks at a make or break stage, and on a myriad of complex bilateral, regional and international issues, collaboration is crucial.
Changing an administration can be very disruptive to bilateral relations.
We know this from experience; since Helen Clark became Prime Minister in 1999 to now with John Key Australia has had John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd again, Tony Abbott and now Malcolm Turnbull.
It can take months for a new leader to find his or her feet and for new ministers to get on top of their portfolios, let alone worry about their overseas counterparts.
Stability, if not continuity is crucial. Fortunately for New Zealand, it appears there will at least be stability.
- By Audrey Young of the New Zealand Herald
