Hosting his first visit by an overseas leader,Albanese said he was intent on taking the relationship to “a new level”,while Ardern framed the visit as an “opportunity for a reset because there were obviously some points of friction”.
Aperennial irritant in the relationship has been Canberra’s over-zealous (in NZ’s eyes) use of section 501 of the Migration Act,under which many hundreds of New Zealanders convicted of criminal offences have been deported even though they may have lived in Australia since early childhood.
Some,Ardern said,were “for all intents and purposes Australian,sometimes not even having stepped foot[across the Tasman].”
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Ardern has raised the issue with successive Australian leaders and while she got no specific assurances from Albanese on Friday,it seemed he was listening more sympathetically than predecessor Scott Morrison,with whom she publicly clashed in 2020.
“I have said that section 501 … should be maintained,” Albanese said,but “we deal with each other in a mature way which deals as well with common sense”.
“We’ve listened to the concerns and there’s more work to do ...[but] if people look at some of the cases that have been held,it’s not surprising that the prime minister would make the strong representations that she had because I would ... if I was in the same position.”