Australia-New Zealand: Close Ties Still Require Work

In July, New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, made her second visit to Australia in just over a month to meet with new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Although the relationship between the two countries easily transcends party politics, having respective governments of very similar parties certainly helps. For New Zealand it allows the government to gain a more sympathetic ear on one of the most pressing problems Wellington has with the relationship – the rights of New Zealanders in Australia.

One major concern for New Zealand has been Australia deporting people convicted of crimes who may hold New Zealand citizenship but who have spent most of their lives in Australia. This is something that New Zealand prime ministers have raised continually with their Australian counterparts, but the matter usually falls on deaf ears. However, Albanese has signaled that there will be a shift in government policy, with Australia now taking a “common sense” approach to criminals who have no significant lived experience in New Zealand, despite their citizenship.

More broadly, what Ardern has sought from Albanese is a recommitment from the Australian government to the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. Created in the early-1970s, the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement allowed Australians and New Zealanders to freely live and work within each country. The agreement also initially allowed access to both countries’ social services, effectively bestowing de facto citizenship on each other’s citizens. Currently around half a million New Zealanders live in Australia, and around 60,000 Australians live in New Zealand.

However, in recent decades Australia has progressively eroded the rights of New Zealanders living in Australia. In 1994 Australia introduced the Special Category Visa (SCV) for New Zealanders. The SCV is automatically granted to New Zealanders upon arrival in Australia without requiring an application. Yet its introduction created a major shift in the power dynamic, from a compact between two states to one between a state and an individual. It gave the Australian government something they could alter or cancel more easily than the agreement with Wellington.

In 2001 other major changes were made: the automatic pathway to Australian citizenship for New Zealanders was removed, placing them in the same queue as all other nationalities. In her meetings with Albanese, Ardern pressed for a special pathway for New Zealanders to obtain Australian citizenship. In the early 2000s the ability for New Zealanders to obtain unemployment benefits was withdrawn, and access to Australia’s student loan scheme was also denied. Although New Zealanders are still classed as domestic students – offering them subsidized education – they are now required to pay their fees upfront.

One proposal floated in the meeting between Ardern and Albanese has the potential to change this erosion of rights for New Zealanders in Australia: the idea that New Zealanders who are permanent residents in Australia would be allowed to vote. New Zealand extends this right to Australians who have lived in the country for a year, and for Australia to do likewise would create a significant new voting bloc of around 530,000 people. Seeking to court these voters may make Australian political parties reluctant to remove their rights, and may even lead to the restoration of rights that New Zealanders have lost.

The prospect of New Zealanders being allowed to vote in Australia would bring the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement back to its original intent: recognizing the intimate bond between the two countries and making an effort to consolidate and enhance trust and understanding between citizens. This is the way that the Australian public sees the relationship with New Zealand – as a familial bond that should not require the implied state suspicion of bureaucratic hurdles.

The relationship between the two countries is one that is easily able to withstand Australia’s undermining of the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. The arrangement may require each country to carry the occasional burden, like criminal activity, but this is a small price to pay for its overwhelming advantages. New Zealand itself has carried a far higher cost than Australia in this regard, with the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings being an Australian. Wellington has refrained from deporting him to Australia.

With two visits to Australia in quick succession, Ardern has demonstrated that she is serious about improvements to the relationship with Australia. For two countries of such intimacy this may seem unnecessary, but true friendship cannot simply rest on familiarity. It does require recognition of problems and the desire to always seek solutions. Australia’s new government looks like it is far more willing to do this work than its predecessor.