New Zealand Prime Minister John Key delivers a speech to the Queensland University of Technology Buisness Leaders Forum at the Hilton Brisbane Hotel on August 4, 2009 in Brisbane, Australia. (Phil Walter/Getty Images)
Mr Key, who spoke at a business forum in Brisbane ahead of joining Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Cairns at the Pacific Islands Forum, also gave a sneak preview of new trade deals between Australia and New Zealand as part of their 26-year Closer Economic Relations (CER) agreement.
Mr Rudd and Mr Key will formally announce new trans-Tasman travel rules and an increase in the investment threshold, which is currently capped at $100 million, in a few weeks.
"In a few weeks' time Australia and New Zealand will be in a position to announce a higher level of investment threshold," Mr Key told AAP.
"It should make it easier for Australian investors to invest in New Zealand and New Zealand to invest in Australia.
"This would be an across-the-board threshold that would be increased."
The cost of flying between the two countries also looks set to drop.
Australian and New Zealand customs last year reached an initial agreement to streamline travel between the two nations while boosting border security.
The plan to create a common border will allow trans-Tasman travellers to avoid customs and immigration, dropping flight prices by up to 30 per cent and allowing an explosion in potential new flight routes.
"It is a positive announcement which will allow New Zealanders and Australians to cross each others' borders more easily," Mr Key said.
"It's an attempt to streamline the process and to ensure that it's a more seamless and painless process for Australians and New Zealanders as they travel across the border."
Any new rules would not affect quarantine or biosecurity "level of exposure" between the two countries, he said.
And while the CER is growing the free market between the two countries, Mr Key said it was vital that high-speed broadband internet be rolled out as a bridge to export partners such as China and India.
"You are going to see tremendous growth out of China and India as they industrialise," he said.
"If New Zealand and Australia really want to compete with Asia, the single fastest way to do that is with the internet."
Mr Key said he expected his country's trade with China to grow after the free trade agreement was signed in 2008.
Two-way trade between the countries is worth $NZ10 billion ($A8 billion) while exports to China have grown by 30 per cent in the year, he said.
China's exports to New Zealand have grown by about 20 per cent since the FTA was put in place.
And although Australia and New Zealand's trade is also growing, Mr Key downplayed the possibility of a regional currency because it would require New Zealand to adopt the Australian dollar.
"I don't think it's likely to progress ... the main issue would obviously require New Zealand to give up control of monetary policy," he said.
