Ardern’s globalist position in the standoff with Scott Morrison over thugs, paedophiles, wife bashers and bikies being sent packing back to New Zealand was downright embarrassing. There are a time and place for most things, but Ardern displayed no diplomacy when she publicly insulted the Australian PM, demanding that Morrison rewrite Australian citizenship laws to fall in line with ours. Generally speaking, after 10 years we take responsibility for Australians living and working here. Simon Bridges saw the opportunity and chipped in saying he would change our rules to follow the Australian regime if he was PM – as usual, too little too late, Simon.
“Ardern’s statement, while standing alongside Morrison, that “We will own our people. We ask that Australia stop exporting theirs”, was met with a tight smile and a polite rebuff.”
Stuff
Australian law is very clear about the position of New Zealanders living in Australia. Australian deportees either currently hold or previously held current NZ passports when they moved across the Tasman but unlike New Zealand, they are not given Australian citizenship rights simply because they were born in, or grew up in Australia.
The question needs to be addressed as to why long-term Australian residents never applied for Australian citizenship.
To be eligible to apply for Australian citizenship, you must have:
– Been an Australian permanent resident for at least 1 year and lived in Australia for at least 9 out of 12 months before you apply
– Been lawfully resident in Australia for at least 4 years before you apply
– Not been absent from Australia for more than 12 months in the last 4 years before you apply
– Good moral character”
Immigration Australia
The simple answer is that these people would be turned down for lack of good moral character after their enforced stays in Her Majesty’s Australian lockup. Australia doesn’t want these dregs of society, and neither do we, but legally they are still our responsibility. Ardern is on thin ice and exhibits desperation by canvassing votes from the dregs of society.
Australia affords New Zealanders seeking to live and work in Australia special dispensation, a reciprocal arrangement, but Ardern says Australia should follow our lead and adopt a 10 year automatic right to citizenship.
“New Zealand citizens are granted a Special Category visa (SCV) upon arrival to Australia. A SCV is a temporary visa but it grants the New Zealand citizen the right to live and work in Australia for the duration of their stay. The SCV automatically expires when the New Zealand citizen departs Australia.”
Despite Ardern being well outside the bounds of diplomacy, New Zealand media rushed to pat her on the head with the headline “PM Jacinda Ardern gets a win in Scott Morrison’s territory”. UK media took the opposite stance.
“But that would leave Australia stuck with dangerous and violent offenders, 40 per cent of whom go on to re-offend.
More than 1,000 New Zealanders have been deported from Australia since 2014 when changes were made to the Migration Act.
Drug offences, assault and child sex offences are the most common charges that result in deportation. The law means even if an individual is an Australian permanent resident, and has lived and worked in the country for decades, they can still be deported.
In the name of national security, they can be ejected on ‘bad character’ grounds if they are sentenced to 12 months or more in prison. New Zealanders are thought to be the largest group to have had their visas cancels and be held in Australian immigration detention centres.”
Daily Mail UK
Australian media are waking up to the hypocrisy, poor performance and cracks in Jacinda Ardern’s coalition government. Extracts from an editorial in The Australian show a turnaround from Australian media recently clamouring for Ardern to cross the ditch.
“Last August Ms Ardern said Australia had “to answer to the Pacific” for its position on climate change. She did not mention, conveniently, New Zealand is forecast to fail to meet its Paris target to reduce emissions by 30 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030. By contrast Australia is on track to meet its 26 per cent to 28 per cent reduction target, with or without Kyoto carry-over credits. New Zealand failed to meet first-round Kyoto targets and did not sign up to Kyoto for 2020.
At last year’s Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu, Ms Ardern asked Mr Morrison to back a UN push for a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, declaring every nation had to “do its bit” to fight global warming. Yet New Zealand has excluded agriculture and methane from its carbon-neutral pledge. That is cute, if not convenient, given agricultural products and meat are New Zealand’s major exports, accounting for 40 per cent of sales. Agriculture makes up half of its CO2 emissions.
On Thursday senator Matt Canavan argued online that New Zealand’s “brave” target, welcomed by environmental activist groups, was “literally an example of doing things by half”. Even with some heroic assumptions (a methane vaccine for sheep), official modelling shows net zero emissions by 2050 would smash New Zealand’s agriculture and shrink its economy by 10 to 20 per cent.
Ms Ardern’s Labour has not delivered on major promises. It pledged to build 100,000 high-quality, low-income houses over a decade via the KiwiBuild program; so far the tally is 315 houses. Ending child poverty may be as elusive for Ms Ardern as it was for Bob Hawke four decades ago.
GDP is growing at a touch above 2 per cent. The small trading nation, dependent on China, will be rocked by a drying up of tourists due to the COVID-19 outbreak and a slide in global demand for its exports. Ms Ardern is tethered to periodic shocks from her “coalition of losers” partners. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, a deputy prime minister from the Barnaby Joyce school of parochial populism and deportment, will tug Labour one way. The Greens, fixated on cannabis legalisation and carbon neutrality, whatever the cost, will push the other way.
One thing you can be sure about, Australia won’t be goading its Tasman cousins about the hypocrisy of their climate postures or trying to steal the Kiwi leader’s global limelight.”
The Australian
Ouch! Scott Morrison was not bothered by Ardern’s blustering demand either, brushing her aside with the same concern one might use on an annoying insect.