Jacinda Ardern lashes out over deportations of Kiwis from Australia

Jacinda Ardern lashes out over deportations of Kiwis while standing with Scott Morrison, after a “frank” exchange.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has lashed out over the deportations of New Zealanders from Australia standing next to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, calling them “corrosive” to the bilateral relationship.

Ms Ardern brought up the issue early in her opening statement after a bilateral meeting between the two leaders and said they had a “frank” chat about the issue.

“We had a frank discussion about New Zealanders who have made their homes in Australia and how they can be given opportunity to live and thrive. We talked about deportations of New Zealanders In my view, this issue has become corrosive in a relationship over time,” she said.

Ms Ardern said she made it “clear” public sentiment on the issue.

“I’m made it clear that New Zealand has no issue with … Australia taking a dim view of newly arrived non-citizens committing crimes.”

“But equally, the New Zealand people have a dim view of the deportation of people who move to Australia as children and have grown up there with often, little or no lasting connection to (New Zealand).”

Mr Morrison, however, suggested Australia was unlikely to shift on the issue.

“Visas are provided on the basis of people being compliant with those visas, and that doesn’t include committing crimes. And so we take a very strong view about this,” he said.

The Australian Prime Minister suggested, however, Australia would handle individual cases ‘sensitively’.

Australia adjusted its laws in 2014 which led to a spike in deportations of people with criminal records who had New Zealand citizenship but had lived their whole lives in Australia.