Chris Hipkins speaks on the meeting with Anthony Albanese.
Perennial concerns about 501 deportations and a rising China dominated the agenda of Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ first foreign trip in the job yesterday.
Hipkins made a whistlestop visit to Canberra, where he had lunch with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and was later welcomed to the floor of the Australian Parliament in his brief day-long jaunt across the ditch.
Albanese and Hipkins’ predecessor, Jacinda Ardern, had ushered in a period of warmer transtasman relations, sweetened by a promise from the new Australian Government to soften its 501 deportation policy and improve pathways to citizenship for New Zealanders living in Australia.
Discussions between the pair appeared cordial, with Albanese momentarily dropping Hipkins’ title and reverting to his Christian name.
“I first met Chris - Prime Minister Hipkins - in the Parliament in Wellington some years ago,” Albanese said, adding that “it means a lot” that Hipkins’ first official visit was to Australia.
The pair discussed issues of citizenship and 501 deportation, as well as the cost-of-living issues affecting both countries and Pacific policy that is grappling with the rise of China.
Albanese has said he would not to ditch the 501s policy, but promised to change the way it is implemented, taking into account how long a person has spent in Australia before a decision is made to deport them.
“We put in place our policy, which is I believe a common-sense policy. We retain Section 501 deportations, the capacity to cancel visas and remove people who pose a risk to the community,” Albanese said.
“What’s changed is we will have a common-sense approach and bear in mind what a person’s ties are to Australia when assessing these cases,” he said.
“There’s a big distinction between someone who comes to Australia either as a teen or an adult and commits offences and someone who has zero connection back in New Zealand and might have come here as an infant,” Albanese said.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was welcomed to the floor of the Australian House of Representatives by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Albanese will not consider retrospective action to assist 501 deportees who have already been deported to New Zealand.
A new 501 policy will take effect next month which will take into account how much time a person has spent in Australia before a decision is made to deport them.
Hipkins said he welcomes the changes, describing them as “common sense”.
Albanese said decisions on citizenship are to be concluded before Anzac Day this year.
China was also a topic of conversation, with Hipkins forced to answer whether New Zealand was softer on China than Australia.
“China is an important partner for New Zealand - an important trading partner and a partner in other areas as well. That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be areas where we disagree from time to time,” Hipkins said.
Answering a question on whether New Zealand was reluctant to take an assertive position on China, Hipkins said the Government was going through some “very significant” changes in its defence policy.
He said the Government was going through a “significant transformation” in defence and making “very significant” investments in the defence portfolio.
The pair reaffirmed their commitment to the Pacific Islands Forum, which had been under pressure last year with the news that Kiribati would withdraw from it.
Fiji has said Kiribati will now return. Albanese referenced this, describing “positive developments” in the forum over the past year in his opening remarks.
The pair also exchanged vinyl records - this is becoming something of a tradition: Ardern and Albanese also exchanged records on her first visit to meet Albanese last year.
For Hipkins, it was also a time to visit Annette King, a long-time Labour MP who is now High Commissioner.
Both leaders used the press conference to discuss their response to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
New Zealand will provide $1.5 million worth of aid. The aid will be provided to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, with $1m destined for Turkey and $500,000 for Syria.
