Focus: PM Jacinda Ardern addresses media after talking to Australian PM Scott Morrison
Video / Jason Walls
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appears to have hit a brick wall in her attempts to twist the arm of Aussie lawmakers into changing the rules around Kiwi deportations.
Before her meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison today, Ardern's rhetoric about the issue was strong. She said it was havinga "corrosive effect with our relationship".
Speaking to media after her meeting with the Australian Prime Minister this afternoon, she ramped up her criticism.
"Something is wrong. And if something is not fair and is unjust, you don't let it go," she said.
Ardern has many times raised the issue of people with very little connection to New Zealand being deported from Australia.
Australia's Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, told the Nine Network today there would be no change from the government.
"We need to stand up for Australians and the New Zealand Prime Minister is rightly doing that for her people," he said.
"But where we have Australian citizens who are falling victim in certain circumstances -where people are sexually offending against children for example - we have had a big push to try to deport those paedophiles and people who have committed those crimes.
"I believe strongly that the Australian people would support that stance as well."
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife, Jenny Morrison, gift New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford, a pink bunny soft toy for their baby, Neve. Photo / Pool
Ardern clearly disagrees and said New Zealanders would look at the policy and would not think it was "fair dinkum".
But she promised to continue to bring the issue up.
"I don't think just because we haven't seen movement, it's an issue we should drop."
She said she would continue to do so, "regardless of whether or not I see any positive moves on Australia's side".
Ardern said New Zealand would not retaliate despite the lack of action.
She said that "hasn't been New Zealand's way and, from a principled perspective, that hasn't been how we have undertaken our foreign policy. I don't think two wrongs make a right."
Meanwhile, Ardern was dodging questions as to whether any issues with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's proposed capital requirements came up in the meeting.
The Reserve Bank's move would require banks to keep more capital in their coffers and it has been met with stiff opposition from the Aussie banks.
Ardern said these issues were not raised by Morrison or herself in the meeting.
But when asked if officials brought it up, she dodged the question. "What matters to me is whether it was raised by PM Morrison and it wasn't."
She said she saw "absolutely no" interest in him in discussing the issue.
