Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers to Meet in Sydney

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern meets Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Queenstown, New Zealand on May 30, 2021. James Allan/Getty Images

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will arrive in Sydney on Thursday evening to meet Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

It will be the first foreign leader welcomed to Australian soil by the new Labor government.

Ardern said it was fitting that she would be the first foreign head of government to meet Albanese since he took office.

Both leaders said the relationship between the two nations is uniquely close and resembles that of a family.

“We are partners and allies, and we share a relationship of family,” Albanese said. “Through our single economic market, our people-to-people ties and our shared interests in the region and around the world, Australia and New Zealand stand together.”

During his diplomatic trip to Indonesia, Albanese told reporters he looked forward to Ardern’s visit.

“She’s been a friend of mine for some time. I look forward to catching up with her informally on Thursday night and then for us to have a meeting on Friday,” he said.

The Australian prime minister said the meeting will be an opportunity to build on Trans-Tasman cooperation, including economic recovery, climate change, support for the Pacific, and global trade and security.

Ardern has indicated that it was also an opportunity to have new conversations about issues that have been difficult between the two nations, namely the 501 deportations and the rights of New Zealanders in Australia.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during a post-cabinet press conference at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on May 23, 2022. Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Under section 501 of Australia’s migration act, authorities are able to send people, both visitors and long-term residents, back to their home country if they fail to pass a “character test.”

Having a substantial criminal record, committing an offence while in immigration detention, or reasonable suspicion of membership of a group involved in criminal conduct are among the reasons that would fail a person’s character test.

According to Newshub, 96 percent of deportations to New Zealand are from Australia and these people continue to commit crimes after they are sent back, contributing to New Zealand’s gang issues.

New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told a parliamentary committee in December that the 501 deportees were a significant reason for the worsening levels public safety.

“The gang environment has significantly changed as a result of returned offenders. That has led to the seeding of new groups,” Coster said.

The 501 deportations have been a major source of disagreement between New Zealand and the former Australian government led by the Coalition party.

“We’re clear with the incoming prime minister that these issues remain for us. Regardless of who’s in office, we want to make progress,” Ardern told reporters.

She said she understood that Australia had a deportation policy because New Zealand had its own, but she wanted to make progress on the “really difficult examples.”

Ardern previously described the policy as “corrosive” to the bilateral relationship when telling former Prime Minister Scott Morrison in 2019 to “not deport your people and your problems.”