New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will head to Brisbane this weekend to meet with Australia counterpart Anthony Albanese.
At the pre-Anzac Day meeting, the pair are expected to unveil changes to Australia’s treatment of New Zealanders first mooted by Mr Albanese and Mr Hipkins’ predecessor, Jacinda Ardern.
Mr Albanese’s Labor government came to office promising improved pathways to citizenship for many residents living in Australia, and with Ms Ardern, put Kiwis near the top of the list.
“We don’t want people to be temporary residents forever,” he said at a joint press conference in July last year.
The pair set a timeline of Anzac Day 2023 as their deadline, though Ms Ardern’s decision to exit politics means she will be replaced at the announcement by Mr Hipkins.
Presently, many of the estimated 700,000 New Zealanders in Australia are unable to access many welfare benefits, nor work for the federal public service or serve in Australian defence forces.
Those rights are extended to Australians living in New Zealand.
“We’ve been working with the Australian government over time to improve the pathways for New Zealanders who are living and working in Australia,” Mr Hipkins told TVNZ.
“I hope that we’ll have a reasonably significant announcement to make about that.”
Australians in New Zealand are also able to vote, with a parliamentary committee looking into extending the franchise to Kiwis in Australia.
Sunday’s meeting comes amid heightened levels of trans-Tasman government engagement, with the centre-left Labor and Labour parties in power.
Australia Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles visited Wellington earlier this month with defence counterpart Andrew Little, the pair sharing a friendship dating back decades to their days as student politicians.
Last year, Mr Albanese and Ms Ardern agreed a series of annual ministerial meetings which are also yet to take place this year: between defence and foreign ministers, the Australian treasurer and NZ finance minister, and climate change ministers.
Mr Albanese and Mr Hipkins will also meet a third time in 2023 in New Zealand at the Annual Australia-New Zealand Leaders meeting.
“New Zealand and Australia’s economic success is inextricably linked,” Mr Hipkins said, noting it was the 40th anniversary of the trans-Tasman free trade deal.
“The Single Economic Market is a powerful engine for growth on both sides of the Tasman.”
Mr Hipkins will also make two further international trips this year, confirming travel to King Charles’ coronation in London in May, and to fly New Zealand’s flag at the annual NATO Summit in Lithuania in July.
Despite campaigning for re-election at the October 14 poll, Mr Hipkins said he was also leaving open the prospect of another trip to China.
“My focus is on the cost of living and cyclone recovery challenges New Zealand is facing. As such I will only undertake a small number of international engagements this year,” he said.
“When overseas I will look to put trade front and centre in order to support our economic recovery.”
Trade delegations will accompany Mr Hipkins to Australia and Europe for the NATO Summit, and, if it takes place, to China.
Opposition leader Chris Luxon will also travel to London for the coronation as part of a Kiwi delegation including All Blacks legend Richie McCaw and Christchurch Mosques terror attack survivor Abdul Aziz.
Mr Hipkins also announced New Zealand’s gift for the coronation: $NZ1 million ($A930,000) towards planting native trees.
“The donation will create a living legacy to benefit all New Zealanders, provide more resilience against climate change, and aligns with King Charles’s lifelong interest in environmental conservation,” he said.
© AAP 2023
