New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will visit Canberra next week in his first overseas trip in the role.
Mr Hipkins, who replaced Jacinda Ardern last week, will take a day trip to visit his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese next Tuesday.
“The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as prime minister was to Australia,” Mr Hipkins said.
This year is a banner one for trans-Tasman relations, marking 40 years of the Closer Economic Relations (CER) free trade deal and half a century of the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement.
There are also plenty of live issues, including a review of citizenship rights in Australia and deportations across the ditch.
Last July, at a joint press conference with Ms Ardern in Sydney, Mr Albanese announced his government would reassess – and possibly relax – pathways to citizenship for Kiwis in Australia.
Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders call Australia home but do not have access to many benefits – including welfare payments or education access – which Australians living in NZ enjoy.
The thorny issue of deportations is also permanently on the table.
The NZ government has long fumed at Australian-based Kiwi criminals being deported to New Zealand even if they have lived in Australia for many years.
Mr Albanese has indicated a willingness to review that practice, but has ruled out abandoning it altogether.
Mr Hipkins’ trip is a similar dash to the one carried out by Ms Ardern in June last year, when she became the first world leader to visit Mr Albanese in office and gifted him a bunch of indie Kiwi records.
Mr Albanese was the only world leader who Ms Ardern told she would be standing down prior to her bombshell announcement last week.
Her exit means new leader-to-leader bonds will need to be forged, though Mr Hipkins and Mr Albanese already share a friendship that pre-dates their rise to national leadership.
The pair shared a “very warm” conversation after Mr Hipkins was confirmed as Ms Ardern’s successor, with the Australian prime minister the first to call and congratulate.
Mr Hipkins offered well-wishes to Australians on January 26, describing NZ’s allies as “our great mates” and “one of our closest partners in the world”.
“The stronger our relationship, and the closer our people-to-people links, the more prosperous and resilient New Zealand and Australia will become,” Mr Hipkins said.
“As well as economic issues, I look forward to discussing our many shared security priorities within the bilateral relationship, and for our engagement in the Pacific and wider Indo-Pacific regions.”
The two leaders are also due to meet later this year as part of the annual Australia New Zealand leaders dialogue, scheduled to be in NZ.
