Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it’s a “delight” to have his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon in Canberra.
The pair are expected to touch on regional security, the Aukus agreement as New Zealand considers joining Pillar II, and the ongoing irritant of Australia’s deportations programme.
Speaking to media today, Albanese said it was a chance to talk through a range of issues together.
He covered the history between the two countries, saying it was “a partnership”.
“We regard ourselves as family ... We steer by the same stars.”
Albanese said when the two first met soon after the New Zealand election, Luxon had canvassed boosting the relationship and furthering the links between the economic markets.
“I’m pleased New Zealand has joined Australia in the Climate Club,” he said.
“We’ve also talked about a seamless transition of our people being able to go through in a contactless way between the two countries.”
Touching on defence, Albanese said the two countries have “committed to working in lockstep like never before”.
The paid had talked about New Zealand’s current defence review, and better inter-operability between the two defence forces, while also agreeing to work together on cyber attacks, saying depending on the form a cyber-attack made, it could constitute an attack under the ANZUS Treaty.
Albanese raised his move to make citizenship easier for New Zealanders, saying since then 60,000 had applied.
The Australian leader also acknowledged Turkiye and fires underway on the Gallipoli peninsula, noting the links of Australia and New Zealand to that area.
In response, Luxon said there had been “warm and productive talks”.
“We are working hand in hand with Australia, we both face a challenging global environment that we haven’t seen in decades,” Luxon said.
He said Australia was New Zealand’s only ally, and the defence forces were working together “seamlessly” - deployed together in nine places.
Luxon said they had decided to prioritise defence procurement as they worked toward inter-operability, as well as personnel placements in defence.
He said there was work on making it easier for businesses to operate in each other’s countries and aligning regulations such as in the building sector.
The pair had also discussed the freedom to live and work in each other’s countries, Luxon said.
On 501s, Luxon said they had agreed “to engage closely” on Australia’s approach to deporting New Zealanders with limited links to New Zealand.
Asked about the change in position on 501s, Albanese noted “the provocative tone” of the question by New Zealand media.
“We don’t have a uniform position, but we respect each other’s position. We say the safety of Australian’s is the number one priority, but we also say ‘common sense,” he said.
He said “common sense” would continue to be applied when deciding whether to send someone to New Zealand.
And questioned about how New Zealand would contribute more in the Indo-Pacific and the defence capability review, Luxon said the two countries wanted to work together as well as they could. He referred to New Zealand boosting its contribution to monitoring sanctions on North Korea.
He hoped the defence capability was due back by the end of the year or early next year.
“Our intention is to be able to say we are fully inter-operable with Australia’s forces - we want to be a force multiplier,” Luxon said.
Albanese said it made sense to cooperate as much as possible and to be inter-operable “because then you get real gains”.
On NZ Defence Force recruitment - and Australia’s moves to make it easier for New Zealanders to join the Australian defence forces - Luxon said he was not concerned about that.
In response to a question about whether New Zealand should be joining Aukus Pillar 2, Albanese said he thought there would be opportunities for them.
He said it covered technology, and “it makes sense, when we are considering Pillar 2, to engage like-minded countries”.
“It’s no surprise we’d look for any opportunity to consider New Zealand in Pillar 2,” said Albanese, adding that it would further cooperation between the two countries.
On the cyber attack initiative they had agreed on, Luxon said it recognised modern warfare had moved into the cyberspace. Should a significant attack happen to New Zealand, that agreement would come into play.
“It’s a pretty severe cyber attack we would need to see, but it’s important to have that covered,” he said.
Albanese said a cyber attack could have as significant an impact as traditional war, adding that “an attack on the economy could bring down the operation of an entire society”.
After a reference from the media to Luxon’s previous quip that it paid to keep things simple when communicating with Australians, Albanese said they had known each other a long time and communicated well while Luxon said Albanese had understood his greeting in te reo Māori.
Albanese ended by saying it was “a great relationship that has always had a sense of humour in the middle of it”.
Speaking to media, Luxon was also asked about the Treaty Principles Bill, with the Prime Minister saying as part of the coalition agreement, National had only agreed to send the bill to a select committee.
“There is no commitment beyond that.”
He said he had not had a chance to read the Waitangi Tribunal report but said “it seems premature” given Cabinet had not yet had a discussion on the bill.
He said the current timing was for a bill to be produced by November.
“Ss the National Party leader, our position on this was that we don’t support it.”
He said Act’s position was for a referendum, and the compromise was reached in the agreements.
He said the bill would not be abandoned, but the terms of the coalition agreement would be met. That only required National to support it at first reading.
“It has been a challenging issue, there’s no doubt about it.” However, he said in his conversations with iwi leaders, they also focused on issues such as education.
“I understand how challenging it is for people on all sides of the debate.... we found a compromise that I suspect neither of us are very happy with.”
He said there would be a select committee process, which would allow “an aeration of issues.”
Luxon was also questioned about the contentious 501 issue, saying he had been “very clear” and was well understood by Albanese.
“We want to make sure people with no connection or limited connection to New Zealand are not deported to New Zealand. The Prime Minister has assured me there will be a common sense approach to it and we will continue to monitor it.”
He said it was Australia’s right to set its own position, and it was ok to have a difference of opinions.
Luxon said the relationship between the two nations was in fantastic shape.
“We all have differences and it’s ok to raise them.”
Before the meeting, Luxon described Australia as an “indispensable ally” but said there were some areas he intended to raise, including his wish for Albanese to return to a more lenient approach on the 501 deportees issue.
It is their third face-to-face meeting and Luxon said yesterday he was looking for a return to the more “commonsense” approach under Jacinda Ardern’s administration, under which more consideration was given to the connection any potential deportees had with New Zealand.
Australia had backed away from that earlier this year.
“I appreciate there are domestic Australian issues around that,” Luxon told travelling media yesterday.
“Australia’s free to make its own decisions but we want to make sure that we have a commonsense approach to that – that people who have very little affiliation with New Zealand shouldn’t be sent back to New Zealand, frankly.”
He said that was something he planned to “advocate very strongly” when he met Albanese this afternoon.
Luxon and a team of his ministers touched down in Canberra last night after an infrastructure “fact-finding” mission in Sydney.
The Prime Minister finished that leg of the trip with a major foreign policy speech to the Lowy Institute, saying New Zealand’s “strategic outlook is deteriorating more rapidly than at any time in our lifetimes”.
“In short, the world is getting more difficult and more complex, particularly so for those smaller states navigating increasingly stormy seas. However, we must engage with the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.”
He touched on several geostrategic issues, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Luxon also made specific mention of China – New Zealand’s biggest trading partner.
“As I conveyed to Premier Li when he visited New Zealand, the difference in values and systems of government means there are issues on which we cannot and will not agree.
“Where we disagree, we will raise our concerns privately and also, when necessary, publicly in a consistent and predictable manner.”
That speech – particularly his focus on the New Zealand/Australia relationship – serves as a backdrop to Luxon’s meeting with Albanese today.
The issue of 501 deportees will also loom large over the meeting and subsequent joint press conference.
Earlier this year, the Australian Government unwound the “commonsense” approach to the way its foreign-born criminals were deported.
For years there has been political tension between New Zealand and Australia over the 501 programme.
Former Prime Ministers Sir John Key and Dame Jacinda Ardern argued against the deportation of criminals who were born in New Zealand but had no real connection to it.
In mid-2022, Ardern managed to get Albanese to agree to a “commonsense” approach, which she said would see few people with little to no connection with New Zealand deported here.
But after domestic pressure in Australia earlier this year, that policy was changed.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s pipeline of infrastructure – and what can be learned from Australia – will also be high on Luxon’s agenda.
He spent most of yesterday rubbing shoulders with top-level infrastructure bosses and officials.
After meetings at Beca, he and his team of ministers made their way further downtown to meet New South Wales Premier Chris Minns.
“We want to make this relationship work and take it to the next level,” Minns said.
A theme among the infrastructure experts Luxon spoke to yesterday was bipartisanship.
Infrastructure New South Wales chairman Graham Bradley said as much after he met with the Prime Minister.
He said having an apolitical approach to building significant projects was key to Sydney’s success.
That’s a view Luxon’s taken on board.
“We want to take the politics out of infrastructure,” he said.
“With our short political cycles, and various bits of political intervention, we want to make sure that we can depoliticise it.”
Jason Walls is Newstalk ZB’s political editor and has years of experience in radio and print, including in the Parliamentary Press Gallery for the NZ Herald and Interest.co.nz.
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