NZ PM says she wants end to deportation of offenders with no family in NZ; Victoria records 19 Covid deaths, NSW records 11, ACT and Queensland record one. Follow all the day’s developments
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Jacinda Ardern will be raising Australia’s controversial deportation policy in today’s meeting. Asked if she has knowledge of whether the government is prepared to “water it down a little bit”, she replies:
Just to be clear, the issue we have is not with deportation. We deport as well. If a New Zealander comes to Australia and commits a crime, send them home … but when someone comes here and essentially, hasn’t even really had any connection with New Zealand at all … have all their connections in Australia and are essentially Australian, sending them back to New Zealand, that’s where we’ve had the grievance.
I’ve heard the prime minister prior to winning the election speak to his acknowledgement that that is the part of the policy that we’ve taken issue with. Even that acknowledgement says to me he’s hearing us, he knows it’s a problem.
It’s been a bugbear for us for a long time so I would like to see movement on it.
We talked about music on occasion but I’m not sure I would’ve picked necessarily the right music if I think I was given that task.