Parliamentarians have formally been welcomed to Waitangi with PM Chris Hipkins urging Kiwis to not be afraid to discuss Maori-Crown relations while National Party leader Christopher Luxon labels Treaty 'a little experiment'. Video / NZ Herald
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has touched down in Canberra today for talks over lunch with Australia’s PM Anthony Albanese – Hipkins’ first overseas trip since becoming PM.
Hipkins, who arrived this morning, was greeted by friend and former Labour Party colleague Dame Annette King, who became the New Zealand High Commissioner to Australia in December, 2018.
Hipkins will meet Albanese for semi-formal talks over a lunch on his day in Australia’s capital.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins greets old friend and New Zealand High Commissioner to Australia Dame Annette King as he touches down in Canberra ahead of his meeting with Australia PM Anthony Albanese. Photo / Claire Trevett
He will also meet with businesses in the Trans Tasman Business Circle and visit Australia’s sitting of Parliament, where he will be welcomed onto the floor of Parliament after meeting the Speaker.
Ahead of the meeting, Hipkins said he had already spoken to Albanese on the telephone. “I think we’re going to get on pretty well actually.”
No announcements are expected from the visit – that will wait until the usual trans-Tasman leadership talks mid-year, when Albanese is expected to come to New Zealand.
However, Hipkins said Australia was a priority when it came to his overseas travel as a new Prime Minister. He said earlier that the talks would include co-operating in the global economic challenges the countries faced.
“As well as economic issues, I look forward to discussing our many shared security priorities within the bilateral relationship, and for our engagement in the Pacific and wider Indo-Pacific regions.”
Hipkins starts off on a good footing: Albanese last week delivered on an earlier promise to PM Jacinda Ardern to issue a direction for officials on the 501 deportees. That requires the officials to give more consideration to how long someone had lived in Australia and whether they have children or other family in Australia when deciding whether to deport them.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets then New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Sydney in 2022. Photo / NZME
Hipkins will also be trying to build a solid personal relationship with Albanese – whom Ardern said had “become a friend” to her. She had told Albanese she would be resigning before announcing it publicly.
Hipkins will travel on the Royal NZ Air Force Boeing with media and a small delegation, leaving early on Tuesday morning and returning that night. It will also be a chance to catch up with his old friend Dame Annette King, who is the High Commissioner to Australia.
Ardern had described the 501s policy, under which Australia deports criminals on character grounds, as “corrosive” in the trans-Tasman relationship. She had issued a stinging critique on an earlier visit to meet then-Australian PM Scott Morrison in Sydney in 2019.
The change of government to the Australian Labor Party changed the approach: during Ardern’s five-day trip to Australia in July last year Albanese said he while Australia would retain the right to deport people, it would now be done in a “common sense” approach based on “actions of friends”.
“In situations where someone had lived their entire life in Australia and they have no connection to New Zealand we will work through it as friends and in a common-sense way.”
The wider issue of the path for New Zealanders to become full Australian citizens has been another ongoing issue, because it impacts on their rights and ability to access government support there.
Successive New Zealand prime ministers have fought for a different approach to the deportations - the main objection was that people who had moved to Australia as babies or children were being sent back to New Zealand, where they had no family support.
It would also kick off a big year of diplomatic anniversaries: 2023 is the 40th anniversary of the Closer Economic Relations Agreement, and marks 50 years since the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement giving people from both countries easy access to the other.
