Jacinda Ardern warns friendship can’t be taken for granted

Jacinda Ardern warns Scott Morrison she’ll keep raising the thorny issue of Kiwi deportation.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says her country’s friendship with Australia cannot be taken for granted and has vowed to keep raising the thorny issue of Kiwi deportations despite Australia showing no sign of softening its approach.

Ms Ardern and Mr Morrison met for 90 minutes in Melbourne today and held wide ranging discussions on how best to counter violent extremism online, China and the regional strategic environment and the continued deployment of Australian and New Zealand forces to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Scott Morrison and Jacinda Ardern meet in Melbourne. Picture: Getty Images.

However, the issue of Australia deporting New Zealand nationals who commit crimes will remain a matter of contention between the two leaders after today’s meeting failed to reach common ground.

“I totally accept that it is within Australia’s rights to deport those who engaged in criminal activity in Australia but there are some examples that will not make any sense to any fair minded person,’’ Ms Ardern told New Zealand reporters after the meeting.

“We can’t take our friendship for granted. We can’t take our closeness for granted. If there is something that is causing concern for one side of a friendship it should be raised. So we have done that.

“New Zealanders look at this policy and just think it is not fair dinkum.”

Jacinda Ardern will keep raising the issue of Kiwi deportations. Picture: AP.

Scott Morrison won’t budge on deportations. Picture AP.

Mr Morrison told Ms Ardern there would be no change to Australia’s approach.

There is bipartisan support in Australia for the current policy, under which any foreign nationals convicted of a crime attracting a 12 month jail term can be deported to their country of origin.

About 800 New Zealand nationals were deported from Australia last year. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton declared ahead of the bilateral meeting there would be no change to the policy.

“We need to stand up for Australians and the New Zealand Prime Minister is rightly doing that for her people,” he told the Nine Network

“But where we have Australian citizens who are falling victim in certain circumstances where people are sexually offending against children for example, we have had a big push to try to

deport those paedophiles and people who have committed those crimes.”

Mr Albanese said Labor backed the status quo. “We don’t want this to be a partisan debate,’’ he said.

New Zealand does not contest Australia’s right to deport foreign nationals who commit serious crimes and exercises the same right. Its beef is with “extreme” cases where people who have lived in Australia their entire lives are stripped of their residency and sent back to New Zealand.

Ms Ardern said she raised this issue with Mr Morrison in the same terms she has used publicly.

“He knows that I consider it to be corrosive to the relationship. He obviously expects me to advocate on behalf of New Zealand and New Zealanders and I will continue to do so regardless of whether or not I see any positive moves on Australia’s side,” she said.

“I’m not the first to raise it, I am not the first to advocate on the issue. But I don’t think just because we haven’t seen movement it is an issue we should drop.”

Ms Ardern and Mr Morrison are next scheduled to meet at the Australia and New Zealand Leadership Forum in February.