Prime Minister Christopher Luxon heads into ‘frank’ talks over 501 deportees policy with Australian PM Anthony Albanese

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is talking up New Zealand’s relationship with its “indispensable ally” Australia, ahead of his third face-to-face meeting with Anthony Albanese on Friday.

Although he spoke highly of the transtasman relationship in a major foreign affairs speech at the Lowy Institute in Sydney yesterday, Luxon said there are some areas where he will be speaking “frankly” with Albanese.

Luxon and a team of his ministers touched down in Canberra last night, after an infrastructure “fact-finding” mission in Sydney.

The Prime Minister finished that leg of the trip by warning the Lowy Institute that New Zealand’s “strategic outlook is deteriorating more rapidly than at any time in our lifetimes”.

“In short, the world is getting more difficult and more complex, particularly so for those smaller states navigating increasingly stormy seas. However, we must engage with the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.”

Christopher Luxon (right) shakes hands with Anthony Albanese in Sydney in December 2023. Photo / Adam Pearse

He touched on several geo-strategic issues, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Luxon also made specific mention of China – New Zealand’s biggest trading partner.

“As I conveyed to Premier Li when he visited New Zealand, the difference in values and systems of government mean there are issues on which we cannot and will not agree.

“Where we disagree, we will raise our concerns privately and also, when necessary, publicly in a consistent and predictable manner.”

That speech – particularly his focus on the New Zealand/Australia relationship – serves as a backdrop to Luxon’s meeting with Albanese today.

But the issue of 501 deportees will loom large over the meeting and subsequent joint press conference.

Earlier this year, the Australian Government unwound the “common sense” approach to the way its foreign-born criminals were being deported.

For years there has been political tension between New Zealand and Australia over the 501 programme.

Former Prime Ministers Sir John Key and Dame Jacinda Ardern argued against the practice of sending criminals who were born in New Zealand – but have no real connection to New Zealand – back home.

In mid-2022, Ardern managed to get Albanese to agree to a “common sense” approach to the policy, which she said would see few people with little to no connection to New Zealand deported back here.

But after domestic pressure earlier this year, that policy was wound back.

Luxon said yesterday he was looking for a return to what was agreed under the Ardern administration.

“I appreciate there are domestic Australian issues around that,” he told travelling media yesterday.

“Australia’s free to make its own decisions, but we want to make sure that we have a common sense approach to that – that people who have very little affiliation with New Zealand shouldn’t be sent back to New Zealand, frankly.”

He said that was something he planned to “advocate very strongly” when he meets with Albanese this afternoon.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s pipeline of infrastructure – and what can be learned from Australia – will also be high on Luxon’s agenda today.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met New South Wales Premier Chris Minns in Sydney on Thursday.

He spent most of yesterday rubbing shoulders with top-level infrastructure bosses and officials.

Following meetings at Beca, he and his team of ministers made their way further downtown to meet with New South Wales Premier Chris Minns.

“We want to make this relationship work, and take it to the next level,” Minns said.

A theme among the infrastructure experts Luxon spoke to yesterday was bipartisanship.

Infrastructure New South Wales chairman Graham Bradley said as much, following his meeting with the Prime Minister.

He told media that having an apolitical approach to building significant projects was key to Sydney’s success.

And that’s a view Luxon’s taken on board.

“We want to take the politics out of infrastructure,” he said.

“With our short political cycles, and various bits of political intervention we want to make sure that we can depoliticise it.”

Jason Walls is Newstalk ZB’s political editor and has years of experience in radio and print, including in the Parliamentary Press Gallery for the NZ Herald and Interest.co.nz.