New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he regrets Australia's decision to scrap a rule that slows the deportation of Kiwi criminals who have little connection to their country of birth.
At a press conference this morning, Luxon said he had spoken to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday morning about Labor's decision to rewrite Ministerial Direction 99, a policy that requires the Australian ties of the incumbent to be taken into account. a visa before deporting them.
Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister of New ZealandCredit: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg
“We're going to defend really hard,” Luxon said. “I raised my concerns with the Prime Minister yesterday morning during our phone call.
“We understand that Australia is a sovereign nation and can make its own decisions, but we are very concerned about this decision because we do not believe that people who have very little connection to this country but strong connections to Australia should be deported here.”
Luxon said he had called Albanese as soon as he learned of the government's decision, given that it was a long-standing diplomatic issue between the two nations.
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“This is something of concern and so, as I said to him, we regret this decision that Australia has taken. I raised those concerns about it and he assured that there would be a common sense approach,” he said.
Earlier this week, Albanese announced the directive would be rewritten after Immigration Minister Andrew Giles came under pressure to prevent non-citizen criminals from being allowed to stay in Australia and save the work.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has cited direction 99 when overturning several cancellations of government visas for convicts.
This direction, implemented by Giles early in his tenure to respond to New Zealand's concerns that its citizens were being deported despite living in Australia for a long time, states: “Australia generally will allow itself a greater level of tolerance high” depending on the time period. a non-citizen has moved into the Australian community.
The government claims the AAT misinterpreted that directive when it cited it to rule that some violent criminals could remain in the country, despite the government's efforts to cancel their visas on character grounds because of their convictions.
With Lachlan Abbott
