“We regret the decision that Australia has made. I’ve raised it with Prime Minister [Anthony] Albanese, I know our Foreign Minister has also raised it with the Immigration Minister.
“It’s just not right that people who have no connection to New Zealand are deported to New Zealand.”
Asked if Albanese had broken his promise to take a “common-sense” approach, Luxon said it would depend on how the new directive was implemented.
He had called Albanese earlier in the week to raise his concerns about a potential shift in stance and said Albanese had assured him a common-sense approach would still be taken.
The Government would be monitoring that closely.
He said the relationship with Australia was otherwise strong, noting Albanese had also moved to make it easier for New Zealanders living there to get citizenship.
Deportations to New Zealand had halved in the first year of the more lenient approach. However, Australia’s move follows a backlash over the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) reversing the visa cancellations of about 30 people, including serious offenders, who had pointed to their Australian connections to appeal deportation.
Albanese changed the directive in 2022 in response to former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern’s request to give more weight to issues such as the length of time a criminal had lived in Australia and their family connections in each country.
Ardern got the concession after repeatedly confronting former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison on the issue, describing it as “indefensible.” Foreign Minister Winston Peters had called it a “festering sore” in the relationship.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said it was a “corrosive policy”.
The concern was the “extreme examples” of people who had grown up in Australia and had little to no connection to New Zealand being deported simply because they had been born here.
“Deporting criminals where they have no support to rehabilitate amongst a supportive community or with family connections helps no one. It doesn’t help the victims of those crimes, it doesn’t help communities, it only continues a corrosive policy,” Hipkins said.
In a statement today, Giles said the new direction made it “crystal clear that the Government expects the protection of the Australian community be given greater weight in visa decisions”.
“It elevates the impact on victims of family violence and their families into one of the existing primary considerations, reflecting the Government’s zero-tolerance approach to family and domestic violence.”
Giles had also cancelled 40 visas in the past fortnight “in the national interest”.
He said while the Government had refused or cancelled a large number of visas on character grounds since entering office, it was also clear a number of decisions had been made by the AAT “that do not reflect the Government’s intent or meet community expectations”.
Albanese’s 2022 change was described as being a “common-sense” approach and required officials to give “primary consideration” to a person’s connection to Australia.
Under the new direction, the connection to Australia is still a primary consideration along with the criminal history of someone.
However, the new wording says officials “may” afford a higher tolerance to those who have lived in Australia most of their lives, rather than “will generally afford” a higher tolerance. The new direction also stipulates the safety of Australians is the highest priority of the government.
Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. She started at the NZ Herald in 2003 and joined the Press Gallery team in 2007. She is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
