'Deport Kiwis but keep Australians' - Jacinda Ardern's fierce message about Australia’s deportation policy

March 2, 2020

New Zealand takes ownership of Australian-born criminals raised here and Australia needs to reciprocate, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Breakfast.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has a simple message in her crusade against Australia's deportation policy: "Deport Kiwis, but keep Australians."

Her definition of what it means to be Australian, however, includes people who might have been born in New Zealand but have grown up in Australia - with Australian accents and Australian families.  

If things don't improve, she says New Zealand may bring in a reciprocal policy.

"We are paying the price, we are feeling the consequences of this policy," she told Breakfast this morning.

During a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday, Ms Ardern called him out for deporting "your people and your problems".

Some of the people being deported have spent their entire lives in Australia, with thick Australian accents and their families still in the country, Ms Ardern said today.

Her comments came as she met will Scott Morrison in Sydney.

"Anyone who watched the full standup, you'll see that the Prime Minister stuck to his guns and I stuck to mine. He has a pretty entrenched view of this but so do I, on behalf of New Zealanders," she says.

"We don't object to countries having deportation policies - New Zealand does. We do deport individuals who have lived here for a small amount of time and who it's clearly an issue which should be best dealt with through deportation. 

"But when someone is essentially a Kiwi, then we own that problem. That's all we're asking that Australia does."

Ultimately, a reciprocal policy could be brought in to deport Australian-born New Zealanders in a similar situation, Ms Ardern says.

"But I'm not keen to do that because I don't think a race from the bottom actually gets us any further to dealing with the principle of this issue."

National says it’ll look at matching Australia’s law that’s seen thousands of Kiwis sent home.

Also while speaking to Breakfast today , Ms Ardern rejected allegations the Government wasn't working hard enough to protect Kiwis during the coronavirus outbreak.

On Friday, New Zealand's first case of Covid-19 was confirmed and Ms Ardern says New Zealand has had an "aggressive response" since the outbreak began.

"New Zealand has gone well above what the World Health Organization has recommended," she says, adding that WHO has not yet recommended border controls, which New Zealand has implemented.

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