Jacinda Ardern was right to raise Section 501 issue with Aussie
Jacinda Ardern was right to raise Section 501 issue with Aussie
In 1891 at the first National Australasian convention there was talk of New Zealand being part of Australia.
The New Zealand representatives present said the then-colony was unlikely to join but may do so later.
This is akin to the classic Kiwi way of turning down an unwanted invite.
It's like saying to someone that you'll 'see them there' rather than a blanket 'nah don't want to go.'
The 1900 Australian Constitution Act still allows for us to join should we change our mind, and over time our two countries' bonds have only become stronger.
Especially since World War I when, as our enlisted soldiers fought and died alongside each other, a mateship was forged that exists to this day.
Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison following their meeting in Sydney.
We became used to people from overseas confusing our accents and as the smaller brother in this backyard relationship, we slowly accepted our role as Canada to their America.
A trans-Tasman relationship and rivalry has evolved, imbued by humour, where Aussies would make jokes about sheep and we would make jokes referring to their history as a penal colony. Between 1788 and 1868, about 162,000 convicts were transported there from Britain and Ireland.
But generally, we prefer to rip Aussies over sports like that underarm incident from 1981.
New Zealanders were actually over that pretty quickly, it's just fun to still bring it up decades later, because it annoys them so much.
Closer Economic Relations meant New Zealanders could live and work and make lives in Australia that they felt they couldn't make here.
Former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer even said at one time that New Zealand has enjoyed all the benefits as though it were a state of Australia.
Then in 2015, in the Malcolm Turnbull government, a bloke called Peter Dutton became the Immigration Minister and that seems to be when our mate across the road changed.
An easy Google search will provide you with a list of the various scandals that Dutton has been involved in.
Dutton wrote section 501 of Australia's Immigration Laws, which led to any New Zealanders who had served a jail sentence of 12 months being deported for failing the 'good character' test.
Never mind if that person had spent most of their lives in Australia and had no connections back here.
It was punishing a person twice by banishing them from the country as soon as they had served their time.
Australia – like all countries - has always had to right to deport the worse criminals who come from another country.
Section 501 opened up a whole new screed of people that they could send back, no matter the crime.
Under the policy they've even tried to deport Aboriginal Australians who were born overseas, until their High Court recently – albeit narrowly - put a stop to that nonsense.
In 2014, 54 Kiwis were deported. Since then, about 1700 have been sent back.
Before 2015, New Zealanders weren't even in the top nine countries of people deported from Australian Detention Centres, now they are the second highest group. It's almost as if this law specifically sought to target New Zealanders.
Former Prime Minister John Key raised the issue with Turnbull in October 2015. The Aussie leader promised to speed up New Zealand cases being heard, but wouldn't change the law.
Dutton was later part of the group who rolled Turnbull as leader. This resulted in Scott Morrison becoming the Aussie PM and it was him who was making funny faces while standing next to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as she said enough was enough.
Ardern's statement felt like a turning point in terms of our relationship with Australia.
Finally, a leader from here was willing to stand up and say what New Zealanders have been thinking since this discriminatory treatment started.
While the rights of New Zealanders living in Australia seem to have diminished, the rights of Australians living here have never been scaled back accordingly. Nor should they be.
They have these privileges because of the long, close and special relationship between our two countries as mates - a relationship that section 501 effectively poos all over.
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