"It's incorrect to say that there is some kind of agreement for 80 specific individuals ... to take residence or visit."
She also said there had been no specific requests for visitor visas from refugees in Nauru.
But Ardern did not think the report amounted to a cheap shot from the Australian Government, which has been under pressure over her repeated offer for New Zealand to take 150 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island.
Australia has not accepted the offer, and attempts to push legislation through the Australian Parliament that would see the offer accepted have so far failed.
The visa requests reported in The Australian may have been referring to April 2016, when the Nauru Government asked all Pacific Island Forum countries to recognise refugee travel documents issued by Nauru as Nauruan passports.
Michael Carley, Immigration NZ visa services manager, said that the 2016 request did not ask about whether refugees could visit New Zealand on holiday visas.
"We are not aware of any current visa applications from Nauru-based refugees."
Ardern said even if a refugee from Nauru was granted a visitor visa and came to New Zealand, they could not stay as a refugee.
"Tourist visas have specific parameters around length of stay."
She said a person seeking to come to New Zealand has travel documentation, ability to support themselves, and intention to return assessed - regardless of where they are from.
The Herald was told by Nauru Government officials that Waqa was not on Nauru and was unavailable to comment.
The Australian reported that Waqa said refugees were encouraged to travel outside of Nauru, but not to Australia.
"But some have travelled to Fiji on visas. We give them a Nauru passport, a special passport. And so they are free to move around.''
The Australian said that Waqa later confirmed that New Zealand was one of the nations that was yet to agree to Nauru's request to allow its refugees entry on visitor visas.
The report also said that the visa requests from Nauru were accompanied by a note from the United Nations advocating for refugees' rights to travel outside of the country in which they were processed.
Catherine Stubberfield, spokesperson for UNHCR regional representation in Canberra, said Convention Travel Documents are frequently used by refugees to travel internationally to their new homes.
But they do not provide "an unfettered right of entry", which remains the sovereign right of respective states.
"UNHCR has not provided specific recommendations as to the rights of refugees to travel from Nauru throughout the region, although we continue to stress the need for immediate and appropriate long-term solutions for all refugees under Australia's so-called 'offshore processing' in Nauru and Papua New Guinea alike," Stubberfield said.
Earlier this week, Ardern met with her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison in Singapore.
She is expecting to speak to Morrison again between East Asia Summit events in Singapore, or at Apec at the weekend in Papua New Guinea, where she intends to raise New Zealand's offer to take 150 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island.
