PM talks tough on deporting thresholds

PRIME Minister John Key has had a ‘‘blunt’’ chat with Australia’s foreign minister about thresholds around deportation, which he described as ‘‘wrong’’.

Australian detention centres are in the spotlight after the death of New Zealand-born Junior Togatuki in isolation while awaiting deportation to New Zealand.

Key said he had spoken to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and was clear about his concerns over the way deportation is administered at present.

‘‘There’s people that have often spent their entire lives now in Australia, they went over there when they were very, very, young.

‘‘It’s a bit like the Australians saying, ‘well, we’re going to pick and choose, we’re going to keep the ones we like but we’re going to send back the ones we don’t like,’’ he told Radio NZ.

Key said he would also raise the subject with new Prime Minister Malcolm Turner. ‘‘The Anzac bond means that there’s a special relationship there that surely means we might get some treatment that’s different from other countries, and what they might do with other countries is up to them.

‘‘But I think when it comes to New Zealanders, the threshold’s currently set in the wrong place.’’

About 300 New Zealanders are being held in Australian detention centres or have already been deported after strict new laws were implemented across the ditch.

Earlier in the week Bishop assured Foreign Minister Murray McCully that Togatuki’s death would be investigated by Australian police.