The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has vowed to consider changing how the government handles visa cancellations in an olive branch to ease longstanding tensions with New Zealand.
The pledge to look at tweaking the scheme prompted the visiting New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to declare the talks in Sydney on Friday allowed for “a reset” in the trans-Tasman relationship.
Ardern is the first international leader to be hosted by Albanese since Labor’s victory in the 21 May election and she welcomed the Australian government’s new climate policy as “good for our region and good for the world”.
Ardern had dinner with Albanese in Sydney on Thursday evening before formal talks on Friday morning. At the beginning of their meeting, Albanese said closer cooperation between the two countries was even more important in light of the increasing strategic competition in the Pacific.
They discussed the long-simmering row stemming from the use of section 501 of Australia’s Migration Act, which allows the cancellation of visas on character grounds, and which is most likely to be used against New Zealand nationals.
The number of cancellations under the policy has increased nearly tenfold in a decade, largely as a result of the Australian government tightening the law to say the minister must revoke the visa if a person has been sentenced to 12 months or more in prison.
New Zealand has repeatedly objected to the deportation of people “who have lived in Australia for a long time and are essentially Australians”.
During a joint press conference after the talks, Albanese said Ardern had been “very forceful” in stating New Zealand’s case and he had “heard the very clear message”.
Albanese said the Australian government would work with officials between now and a meeting next month. He gave a commitment to “work through the implementation of the way that section 501 has been dealt with”.
“We’ve listened to the concerns and there’s more work to do,” he said.
Albanese reiterated that section 501 of the Migration Act would be maintained, but he acknowledged “concerns have been raised that need to be taken into consideration”.
“As friends, we deal with each other in a mature way, which deals as well with common sense,” Albanese said.
“And what’s clear is that, if people look at some of the cases [of visa cancellations] … it’s not surprising that the prime minister would make the strong representations that she had, because I would be, if I was in the same position.”
During the election campaign, Labor indicated it would make use of Australia’s existing visa-cancellation laws, but sources said it would tweak the rules to ease strain on the relationship with New Zealand.
On Friday, Albanese declined to confirm he was considering tweaking the ministerial direction to ensure decisions better take into account the length of time a person has been in Australia and the historic special immigration status of New Zealand citizens.
He said he would not speculate on options because his government would deal with the issue through “proper processes”.
In 2019 Ardern said after a meeting with the then-prime minister Scott Morrison in New Zealand that the issue had “become corrosive” in the trans-Tasman relationship.
After visiting Australia for talks in early 2020, she accused Morrison of “deporting your people and your problems” across the Tasman.
Ardern said on Friday she was “heartened” by Albanese’s response. She said she was not asking for Australia to remove its deportation policy altogether, even though she often saw New Zealand’s requests “mischaracterised” in the media.
“There are some who are being deported from Australia who, for all intents and purposes, are Australian – often zero connection to New Zealand, sometimes not even having stepped foot there,” she said.
“That’s the place that we’re asking for that consideration to be given. So, anyone who claims that it is somehow going to make Australia less safe, that is not true and it is not fair.”
The meeting between Albanese and Ardern comes amid growing competition for influence among Pacific island nations, after China’s signing of a security agreement with Solomon Islands.
Albanese said Australia and New Zealand, acting as one, could produce “an outcome that’s greater than the sum of the two”.
“Our approach is based upon respect, transparency and engagement with Pacific institutions,” he said.
“We’re in lockstep on the Pacific and I look forward to working with Prime Minister Ardern, working with our democratic neighbours. We’re all a part of the Pacific. They’re our partners.”
Albanese said he looked forward to attending the Pacific Island Forum leaders’ meeting in Fiji next month and “working not just with New Zealand but our other Pacific partners on making sure that we defend national sovereignty, that we look at ways in which we can increase development”.
He said Australia would submit an updated nationally determined contribution to the UN framework convention on climate change “soon”. That will outline Australia’s new 2030 target of a 43% cut in emissions based on 2005 levels. That is an upgrade from the Tony Abbott-era pledge of 26% to 28% cut.
Ardern said the Pacific region had listed climate change as its number one threat and that was “not out of symbolism” but the impacts that were already being felt.
She said New Zealand had “a lot more to do, but we welcome being joined on that journey by Australia”.
