Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern does not expect a resolution on 501 deportations from her trip to Australia this week, saying it will take time to work through.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is in Australia on a trade mission and to attend a leadership forum. Photo: Supplied / Adam O'Sullivan
The Australian policy, which has seen people deported if they commit crimes in Australia without citizenship - despite them often having grown up in Australia - has been a sore point between the two countries for years.
Ardern landed in Melbourne this afternoon, kicking off a trade mission and leadership forum in Australia that follows her trip to Europe last week.
On a quick trip to Sydney last month, she stood alongside the freshly elected Australian Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as he signalled that while the policy would remain, some of the details would be looked at.
At the time, Ardern said it marked a significant shift in the country's rhetoric on the matter, but today she was quick to dampen expectations of significant change from this week's trip.
"I have not necessarily set that expectation this early on because the one thing that we are very mindful of is that underpinning the 501 issue is actually the issue of citizenship," she said.
She repeated her position that New Zealand is not opposed to deportations in general, rather it was an issue of citizenship - which would take time to resolve.
"We would not be having the issue of people being so easily deported [to] New Zealand were we not to have that stability of people having status in Australia that gives them more permanency and greater rights," she said.
She did want to see some progress, however.
"None of those issues can be resolved in weeks, I understand that, what I'm looking for is, you know, a commitment to keep working them through.
"I think I'm just being realistic about what are significant changes that we've been seeking on issues like citizenship ... about how some of those changes will take a bit of time to work through."
"What I'm looking for is signs that we continue to be heard and that progress is being made."
Regional security is another hot topic for both leaders, with China's growing influence in the region marked by the country's deals with Pacific Island nations - particularly one with Solomon Islands.
The Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji, following fast on the heels of Ardern's trip to Australia, promises to be a major event for raising those tensions with Pacific neighbours.
Ardern said she expected to expand on the themes she raised at the NATO summit last week.
These included a warning about a more assertive China, which sounded a warning of its own saying her comments were "unhelpful, regrettable and wrong".
She said her visit to Europe had, however, reinforced her stance on the war in Ukraine - that it could not lead to further escalation.
"It did really further strengthen my view that New Zealand is absolutely positioning itself in the right way on these big major issues like the war in Ukraine," she said.
She also said the high cost of living had been a common theme on the margins at NATO.
"Most interested to just see that everyone's having a comparable experience, there's no one country amongst the conversations I was having that was an outlier on this, and many common approaches to it as well."
Ardern also plans to promote New Zealand trade, investment and tourism, having brought representatives from 30 businesses.
She said Australia was one of New Zealand's most important markets, and the trip would offer opportunities particularly for businesses looking to enter a new environment, or looking to re-establish or expand their brand.
The visit will also include bilateral talks with Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as well as the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, which will be attended by several ministers from both countries.