As his prime ministerial car arrived outside the UN in New York City this week, the last thing on Anthony Albanese’s mind was probably the first thing to preoccupy mine: the sheer expense of it all.

New York still markets itself as the city of opportunity.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

He wouldn’t have worried much that a small pumpkin spiced latte at the ubiquitous Starbucks costs an eye-watering $12.50 – around double the equivalent in Sydney (not that we’d be seen dead there).

Maybe he’d scoff at that price – as I did – and make his own. The cheapest carton of milk I could find in CVS, the everyday pharmacy/grocery store, costs $11.50.

“Exxy” – to use Aussie slang – doesn’t cover it. It isn’t just expensive, it’s extortionate. Basic items feel like a massive rip-off. A below-average dinner is around $45. Almost skint, yesterday I bought a meagre mangy corndog from a street cart. $16.50.

On my jog around Central Park, I glanced over the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir at the skyscrapers shimmering in the autumnal sunlight and pondered Sydney’s similar view. Our smaller but handsome skyscraper cluster viewed from the Royal Botanic Garden gives the same satisfying green garden to city tower juxtaposition, and offers, arguably, an even more Instagram-worthy view.

I’m spending the month here in NYC, as the inaugural recipient of the Alan Joyce and Shane Lloyd playwriting scholarship facilitated by the American Australian........

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