New Zealand’s new Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, insists he will be upfront about disagreements with China, even as he and Prime Minister Albanese seek to deepen trade ties with the rising superpower.
Hipkins visited Canberra on Tuesday for his first overseas trip since replacing Jacinda Ardern last month and held a working lunch with Albanese at Parliament House.
New Zealand’s Chris Hipkins meets with Anthony Albanese at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
New Zealand took a notably softer line on China than Canberra under Ardern’s leadership, helping the nation escape the trade sanctions and breakdown in diplomatic relations experienced by Australia under the Morrison government.
Some New Zealand exporters benefited from the restrictions on Australian imports such as wine, beef, barley and seafood.
“China is an incredibly important partner for New Zealand, a very important trading partner,” Hipkins said at a joint press conference with Albanese.
“That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be areas where we disagree from time to time and we’ll continue to voice our disagreements with China when that happens.
“We will always strive to strengthen that ongoing relationship.”
Albanese said he was delighted Trade Minister Don Farrell had been invited to Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart as the government seeks to convince Beijing to begin lifting restrictions on Australian exports worth $20 billion a year.
“China’s an important trading partner for Australia,” Albanese said.
“The trade to China is more than the value of the next three highest trading partners combined, so it’s in Australia’s national interest to have good economic relations and to trade with China.”
China’s Commerce Department said it wanted Australia to make it easier for Chinese companies to invest in Australia, saying Beijing was “highly concerned about Australia’s tightening of security inspections on Chinese companies investing and operating in Australia”.
Albanese also said he was confident he would be able to complete a plan by ANZAC Day to make it easier for New Zealanders to become Australian citizens and vote in local elections.
New Zealanders who arrive in Australia have limited access to welfare payments and it can be difficult for them to obtain Australian citizenship unless they have an Australian partner.
After a long campaign by New Zealand, Albanese announced last week he would soften Australia’s approach to deporting New Zealanders on character grounds. Authorities will now consider how long New Zealanders have been in the country, and their connection to the local community, before cancelling the visas of those sentenced to 12 months or more in prison or found guilty of sexual offences involving a child.
Describing the changes as “common sense”, Albanese said he would not make any retrospective policy changes to allow Kiwis who had already been deported to return to Australia.
Hipkins said he wanted to acknowledge and applaud the progress made on citizenship issues faced by New Zealanders in Australia.
“New Zealand has no closer partner than Australia,” Hipkins said.
“Our countries are more than friends, we are family.”
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