Abstract: This reply is in response to Vance et al (2017), who expressed concern that their Law Dome summer sea salt record (LDsss; Vance et al 2013) and two Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) reconstructions (PLF and DT-median; Vance et al 2015) were not compared properly in our recent study (Palmer et al 2015) describing the eastern Australian and New Zealand summer Drought Atlas (ANZDA) and that this omission mischaracterizes their records.