Jacinda, ScoMo and the bad apples
Despite our many common causes and shared endeavours, the much-vaunted Anzac relationship has been sorely tested, most notedly in recent times by the deportations of New Zealand-born criminals under Australia’s notorious Section 501 of its Migration Act.
Behind the oft-acclaimed transtasman camaraderie, there is a long history of appalling abuse. Exactly 100 years ago, in 1921, Australia banned New Zealand apples because of claims that fire blight, a disease that attacks apple and pear trees and rose bushes, could spread. Wellington proved the ban could not be justified on scientific grounds as fire blight couldn’t be carried on mature fruit, but Canberra refused to budge — an impasse costing New Zealand tens of millions a year for 90 years.
Finally, the WTO ruled Australia’s restriction on imports of our apples illegal in 201,1 and the first shipment landed on Australian soil in August that year.
Australia has been facing similar opprobrium for its outward-bound flights for all non-citizens who fail a character test. The practice particularly affects Kiwis who have lived long and often fruitful lives in Australia without the need to become full citizens. The latest expressions of disgust involve the deportation of a 15-year-old boy.
Little detail has been disclosed, other than that he was being held at a quarantine facility and receiving support from Oranga Tamariki. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has asked for more details.
It has been more than a year since Ardern bluntly challenged Scott Morrison over Australia’s “corrosive” deportation policies.
“We have a simple request. Send back Kiwis, genuine Kiwis — do not deport your people and your problems,” she said in a joint press conference on February 28 last year. Ardern’s comments seemingly fell on deaf ears. If anything, the country has ramped up the deportations. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton now calls the practice “taking out the trash”.
It has been estimated up to 40 per cent of deportees from Australia reoffend once in New Zealand. Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis predicted such outcomes in 2016 when he was an Opposition MP. “They’ve got no job . . . if they don’t have the right type of social support then they may have to resort to crime to get by,” he said.
Many of these apples, blighted or otherwise, have not fallen far from the tree. There is no justification for pitching them into our back yard.