A prime ministerial sledge from New Zealand's leader has not dented trans-Tasman relations, Anthony Albanese says.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon drew groans in question time on Wednesday for a joke which denigrated the intelligence of Australians.
"In my dealings with Australians it always pays to be incredibly simple," Mr Luxon said.
The remark came in response to questioning from Labour opposition leader Chris Hipkins over the government's use of the Maori language, known as te reo Maori.
The quip recalled former Kiwi leader Robert Muldoon's infamous line that New Zealanders leaving for Australia "raised the IQ of both countries".
Asked about the sledge on Thursday, Mr Albanese took it with good humour, saying it had not damaged ties with his Kiwi counterpart.
"Christopher Luxon is a friend of mine, but I often think that whilst we both speak English, sometimes we need interpreters with the Kiwi accent," Mr Albanese said.
"We're great friends and we're great mates. Sometimes though, we do speak a different language, and that's when we both think we're speaking English."
The comments from Mr Luxon came after New Zealand's Culture Minister Paul Goldsmith instructed officials to remove several te reo expressions from an invitation to Matariki, the annual celebrations of the Maori New Year.
The invitation was bound for Tony Burke, Australia's Multicultural Affairs minister.
The Maori words included the greeting "tena koe" (meaning hello), the sign-off "naku noa, na" (which became 'yours sincerely'), and the removal of the widely-accepted Maori name for New Zealand: Aotearoa.
Te reo is an official language of New Zealand, along with sign language and the de facto English, and increasingly spoken by Maori after decades of decline - in part due to hostile government policies.
Mr Luxon's right-leaning coalition - of the conservative National party, free-market libertarians ACT and populist NZ First parties - has reduced te reo use in government since taking office last November.
The government has issued edicts to public servants to stop communicating in te reo, and has scrapping or de-prioritising Maori names for government bodies which had been given more prominence during Jacinda Ardern's government.
Mr Goldsmith's instruction to remove the Maori greetings - which are commonplace in New Zealand - drew criticism from Labour, particularly given it was correspondence relating to Matariki, NZ's sole indigenous public holiday.
Mr Goldsmith said he didn't think Mr Burke would know what Aotearoa meant.
"It's hardly the scandal of the century. I just didn't think it needed a lot of te reo in it ... I thought, let's just keep it simple," he said.
Mr Burke - who has championed Australia's indigenous languages in his role - said he learned the word Aotearoa over four decades ago.
"I learnt the word in 1982 thanks to Split Enz including a reference in the lyrics to Six Months in a Leaky Boat," he said.
Later on Thursday, Mr Luxon downplayed the gaffe.
"At least the Australians have maintained their sense of humour ... it's great we can poke fun of each other," he said.
Mr Luxon is no stranger to Australia, living in Sydney for five years during his corporate career with Unilever.he told AAP in a 2022 interview.
"If I couldn't be a Kiwi I'd be an Aussie, absolutely." he told AAP in a 2022 interview.
"I just love the confidence and optimism of the joint."
His son Will is an Australian citizen, and his daughter Olivia works in Australia, graduating from the University of Melbourne last year.
It is not Mr Luxon's first Maori language-related misstep.
In December, he told public servants that wished to learn te reo they should pay for it themselves, when it was later revealed he had charged taxpayers more than $3000 for his own private tuition.
