“We have both a responsibility and a legal authority to make sure that we provide services for when someone returns to New Zealand”.
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“The one thing I would say is we need to negotiate with these guys, not put them in an armlock, because if we try to put Malcolm in an armlock, what will end up happening is he will actually have to face the domestic politics of his own people”, Key told Radio NZ. It’s just a new way for people to talk cross-platform. A few of these “New Zealanders” have been in Australia since childhood and have nearly no links here.
Until recently it could cope with helping such arrivals, but not now – it has helped about 32 newly-arrived Australian deportees in the past three months, compared to around 60 in the 12 months before that.
Key said he hoped that meant appropriate monitoring and community support to deportees would be provided.
It is believed there are 200 New Zealand nationals in Australian detention centres, while the total eligible for deportation under tough new immigration laws is up to 1000. It’s a useful app we at The Huffington Post Australia use nearly every minute of every day – but the thing we love most is the Giphy plug-in. I think it’s a great step forward and New Zealand should adopt the same policy.
He said he first raised Australia’s new immigration laws with former prime minister Tony Abbott in February and again in April.
“It’s a relationship that spans everything from our time on the battlefields of places like at Gallipoli, right through to economic integration between the two countries”.
“Did the Prime Minister and others take their eye off the ball?”
Beyond the immediate issue of deportations however is a growing feeling that New Zealand’s relationship with its closest neighbour has gone backwards in recent years.
QUESTIONED by opposition MPs on Tuesday, Mr Key denied he had been slow to raise the issue with the Australian government.
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Up to 1000 criminals could be sent back to New Zealand in the next five years, despite having little or no ties with the country.
