Jacinda Ardern will visit Australia for a bilateral meeting with Scott Morrison on Thursday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Eleanor Ainge Roy – The Guardian

24 February 2020

As gang violence in New Zealand soars – partly fuelled by Australian deportees, police say – Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is heading to Sydney for her annual bilateral with Scott Morrison.

The issue of New Zealanders with only distant links to their home country being summarily shipped back to Aotearoa will again be on the agenda, but experts say it is unlikely Ardern will take as tough a stance as last year, when she said the issue was having a “corrosive” affect on trans-Tasman relations.

Before her departure on Monday, Ardern reassured New Zealanders she planned to once again tell Morrison the policy “was wrong”, though she ruled out a tit-for-tat by introducing deportations for Australians convicted for serious crimes.

Other issues likely to be discussed include the coronavirus outbreak, China’s growing influence in the Pacific, terrorism, trade and the climate crisis – a thorny issue for Morrison after a summer of catastrophic bushfires in which he was accused of being a climate denier on the world stage.

[Read the full Guardian article].