Jacinda Ardern has quashed reports that her offer to take scores of asylum seekers from the Australian government has created a surge of people smuggling boats heading for New Zealand’s shores.
A report in the Australian newspaper on Tuesday claimed at least three boats intercepted in Australian waters recently were attempting to get to Australia via its “back door” – New Zealand.
The apparent increase in boats heading to New Zealand was allegedly in response to the government’s offer to settle 150 of Australia’s asylum seekers housed in off-shore detention centres such as Manus Island.
The offer was first made to the Australian government by then-prime minister John Key in 2013, and demonstrates no shift in refugee or immigration policy for either government.
On Tuesday, Ardern condemned people smugglers as “parasites” who used “propaganda” to target vulnerable people for monetary gain, and said her government was working alongside Australia to tackle smugglers who were risking people’s lives.
“I don’t want to comment on specific intelligence briefings or reports but what I am happy to say, as I have done before, is that chatter amongst people smugglers has ebbed and flowed for many many years,” Ardern said.
“I am advised that none of the activity that we’ve seen in recent times is unusual.”
Shadow foreign affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee said the prime minister should take more care with her remarks to Australia, as her “ill-advised interference” had caused a spike of interest in New Zealand and she had demonstrated a “disregard to the complexity of the problem”.
In November Ardern restated her offer when she visited Australia to speak with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
During that visit Turnbull again rejected New Zealand’s offer, saying his government was “not taking it up at this time”.
However he left the door open for a future agreement, saying the government would consider the deal once it had completed the ongoing transfer of refugees to the US.
