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Gillard drags feet on apple promise

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Mon, 30 Jan 2012 9:06a.m.

Tasmania is still refusing to accept New Zealand apples

Tasmania is still refusing to accept New Zealand apples

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard hasn't kept her promise to eat a New Zealand apple.

She made a bet with Prime Minister John Key during the Rugby World Cup that she would if the All Blacks beat the Wallabies, and Mr Key was going to eat an Australian apple if the Wallabies won.

The All Blacks won but Ms Gillard hasn't honoured the bet - not yet, anyway.

Mr Key is giving her a way out.

"They're out of season at the moment, they'll come back in March and I'm hopeful she'll chomp her way through a great New Zealand apple," he said on Newstalk ZB on Monday after returning from talks with Ms Gillard in Melbourne.

It's a tricky situation for Ms Gillard.

New Zealand last year won a 90-year battle to export apples to Australia after taking a case to the World Trade Organisation.

Despite that, Tasmania is still refusing to accept New Zealand apples - the row was over whether they carry the disease fire blight - and New Zealand growers want the government to seek another ruling from the WTO.

Mr Key says he's reluctant to go down that track.

NZN

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Comments

31 Jan 2012 08:20p.m.

Farmer wrote:

New Zealand apples are out of season?Which country does this baffoon live in?If he can't get a lass to fulfill her promise, how is he going to get this country out of the rut that he has placed it into?What a loser.