AUSTRALIA dispensed with the usual subjects of rugby, sheep, underarm bowling and the Kiwis' risible Olympic medal count yesterday and found a new way to offend New Zealand.

It was a less than flattering description of the NZ Prime Minister, Helen Clark, contained in a briefing for journalists covering Kevin Rudd's visit to Wellington on Monday.

The briefing notes, compiled by the Australian high commission in Wellington, painted Miss Clark as a control freak with archaic foreign policy views.

Miss Clark was "renowned for her managerial skill, the discipline she demands from those around her and her tight control of all things Labour undertakes under her leadership", it says before really warming up.

"She does not trust those outside a small circle in Labour and her chief of staff, Heather Simpson, is known as the second most powerful person in New Zealand (known as H2)."

Miss Clark's views, it says, are "generally left-wing with foreign policy perspectives forged during the Vietnam War".

The note is also outdated by some years because it refers to Miss Clark's "newly formed" governing arrangement with the minor parties NZ First and United Future.

An unimpressed Mr Rudd issued a "please explain" to the high commissioner, John Dauth, whom he only recently appointed as the next high commissioner to Britain.

Mr Dauth apologised and the Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement: "[We] very much regret the circulation of the biography by the Australian high commission in Wellington - an outdated internal draft - which was a mistake."

Miss Clark accepted the apology and laughed off the affair.

"I thought it was quite funny. But as I say, if I was to have my CVs on other leaders fall off the back of trucks, you would all have a lot of laughs as well," she said.

"I am a bit surprised that DFAT would draw up something that was clearly written about the time of the last election. There you go, maybe they need to be more efficient."