New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (left) and her partner Clarke Clarke Gayford arrive in Sydney. Photo / AAP
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (left) and her partner Clarke Clarke Gayford arrive in Sydney. Photo / AAP
Thank God Australia's disgraced former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce renounced his New Zealand citizenship or Malcolm Turnbull could have sent him packing, meaning we would have been forced to lock up our daughters on this side of the Tasman.
Okay so he doesn't exactly qualify for the Aussie hardlineon the deportation of Kiwi criminals back to this country on character grounds, even if in his pregnant mistress' family's view is that he'd certainly qualify on that front and on the fact that he's an unacceptable risk to the Australian community.
Joking aside, this is the most pernicious aspect of a Government that cares little about our Government and even less about our citizens.
Today Jacinda Ardern will be pressing the flesh of Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney where she'll tell him what's bugging her but will lay on the charm for fear of offending the sensitive Aussie.
And it's understandable that it pays to keep the Aussies on side, given the $24 billion in two way trade each year... or is it?
It's not the Government that actually does the trade, it's the business leaders who'll be dining on fine wine and eating terrific tucker as they rub shoulders with business big wigs from this country, along with Winston Peters and no fewer than seven Cabinet Ministers, who flew in from Wellington on Ardern Airlines overnight.
Also there will be the Nats' new boy Simon Bridges who turned down seats on the air force jet preferring to fly in commercially.
But deporting criminals who have the same sort of flimsy New Zealand citizenship as Barnaby Joyce did is a disgrace.
NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (second left) shakes hands with NSW Minister for Counter Terrorism, Corrections and Veterans Affairs David Elliot (left) as she arrives with her partner. Photo / AAP
In some cases they have never visited this country, all their family support in on the other side of the ditch.
Without that support, it's hardly surprising then that hundreds of them have returned to a life of crime here.
The Australians have got rid of them on the grounds that they're not of good character and pose an unacceptable risk to their citizens.
Despite the fact that their life of crime was learnt in Australia, that country takes no responsibility for them.
Of course they're within their legal rights to send them packing because their flaky citizenship attaches them to this country, but they fall well short when it comes to the morality of their three year old policy.
The only option open to us is to give them a taste of their own medicine, to send their citizens who offend in this country back to theirs.
Now that the Turnbull/Key/English bromance is no longer part of the equation, that's the challenge for Jacinda Ardern.
