Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has received a direct warning from New Zealand’s prime minister in a phone call over plans to rewrite orders around deporting criminal Kiwis.
NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon spoke with Mr Albanese yesterday morning to express his displeasure with the government’s promise to rewrite the contentious “ministerial direction 99”, which made it easier for Kiwis convicted of serious crimes but who had few connections to NZ to remain in Australia.
Direction 99 was first issued by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles partly in an effort to pacify New Zealand over its bitterness that Australia deported violent criminals to NZ even if they had spent nearly all their lives in Australia.
It guided decision-makers reviewing appeals for cancelled visas to add weight to a person’s connections to Australia in deciding whether to reinstate that person’s visa or not.
Mr Albanese confirmed it would be rewritten yesterday amid controversy over a man charged with murder, whose cancelled visa was reinstated just weeks before the alleged crime in part due to Mr Giles’ direction.
At a press conference, Mr Luxon said he called Mr Albanese as soon as he learned of the decision to effectively revert Australia’s position on deportations.
“We’ll be advocating very strongly. I raised my concerns with the prime minister yesterday morning during our phone call,” Mr Luxon said.
“We understand Australia is a sovereign nation and it can make its own decisions, but we have great concern about that decision because we don’t think that people who have very little attachment to this country but with strong connections to Australia should be deported here.”
Mr Luxon said he had been reassured by Mr Albanese that a “common sense approach would remain”.
Speaking on ABC Radio Sydney, the prime minister said non-citizen criminals who “represent a threat to the community” should be deported.
“I informed him of what our view was, and he is very conscious of that, but we determine our policies,” Mr Albanese said.
Mr Albanese added that Mr Luxon was expected to soon visit Australia.
Asked later whether the embattled Mr Giles was safe in his job, or could be reshuffled out, Mr Albanese did not offer a defence of him, but said he had no plan to remove the immigration minister.
“Andrew Giles is the immigration minister, I am the prime minister, and I have no intentions of making changes imminent, I know there’s a campaign being run by [Opposition Leader] Peter Dutton,” Mr Albanese said.
“I say this, if Peter Dutton held himself to the same account that he wishes other ministers to be held, then he wouldn’t have lasted in that portfolio for a week.”
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