Winston Peters suggests law change could allay Australian fears over refugees

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters speaks to reporters in Nauru after meeting his Australian counterpart Marise Payne. Photo / NZ Herald

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says fears of asylum-seekers and refugees using New Zealand as a backdoor to Australia can be dealt with through a law change, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says that's not on the cards.

Australia has used that concern as a reason why it will not take up New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 refugees from Nauru and Manus islands here.

Peters was asked about the issue by journalists on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru today.

"If the issue was, that that was their concern, that by letting them come to New Zealand they will gain rights to Australia, we can fix that up. So that's not a concern in my view," he said.

Peters suggested laws could be changed so that people resettled in New Zealand were not able to travel to the country they had originally planned on going to.

"You'd have to contemplate saying that you cannot go back to the country from whence you want to flee in the first place.

"If that was the greatest concern, and you really had a sense of humanity and that was the barrier - and I don't believe it is - we could accommodate it."

Ardern, who will arrive in Nauru on Wednesday, said any law changes was an issue for Australia and New Zealand was not considering any legislation to allay Australian concerns over back-door entry fears.

"That is a matter for them, it is a matter for their law, and has no effect on our offer," she told reporters.

Peters also had a subtle dig at New Zealand First's government coalition partner Labour over conflicting comments on increasing the refugee quota in New Zealand.

Ardern, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway have all been clear that Labour was working towards increasing the quota from 1000 to 1500, but Peters yesterday poured cold water on that, saying his party had never agreed to it.

Today he said any discussion about taking the 150 refugees from Nauru and Manus would be a shared discussion.

"We have sign off as a proper process that goes through Cabinet where everybody knows exactly what the standards and criteria would be. What we can't do is have people speculating on the basis of individual party policy which has not been through the process, not been through Cabinet and therefore not official."