Recently renounced New Zealand citizen Barnaby Joyce has said his former homeland should back off on its offer to resettle refugees from Australia’s offshore detention regime.

In an interview with Newstalk ZB in New Zealand, the recently-reinstalled deputy prime minister of Australia issued a veiled threat to the NZ prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, that her commitment to the offer could jeopardise the two countries’ relationship.

Asked if New Zealand should “back off” on its refugee offer, Joyce warned: “I think it’s best if you stay away from another country’s business. I find that. Otherwise they’ll return the favour at a time they think is most opportune for them.

“Respect country’s sovereignty and let them sort out their own issues, and if you’re going to talk to them at all, talk to them discreetly, not by telephone, not by TV.”

Joyce said asylum policy had been a major issue for the Australian government.

“First of all, you’ve got to have control of your borders, otherwise the people in your country will just not vote for you. They want you to have strong border control.

“If you allow other people to make those arrangements, what you’re doing is handing your immigration policy across to criminals.”

Joyce said the government’s strong border policies had stopped drownings at sea “and that’s precisely what we wanted”.

New Zealand has had a standing offer to Australia to resettle 150 refugees from Australia’s offshore detention centres every year since 2013. Australia has consistently rejected the offer.

The detention centres – designed as temporary processing facilities – have held people for more than four years, and have been plagued by allegations of violence, including murder; sexual predation of men, women and, in particular, children; medical neglect leading to death; high rates of suicide and self-harm; and other human rights abuses. They have been condemned by governments around the world, the United Nations, and human rights groups.

Since her election in October, Ardern has publicly reiterated the offer to resettle refugees, and said she held “grave concerns” for their safety on offshore islands. She committed $2.7m from the New Zealand government for essential services for those on the islands.

But Ardern said she had barely spoken about the offer publicly in recent times.

“I haven’t raised this as an issue for weeks. I’ve been asked questions because my Australian counterparts have spoken of it, that is the only reason,” she said. Asked if Australia was being overly sensitive, Ardern replied “yes”.

Relations between Australia’s Coalition government and New Zealand’s new Labour government have been patchy in recent months, not helped by the intervention of Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, who said in August that she would “very hard to build trust” if Labour won.

That followed accusations by senior Coalition minister Christopher Pyne, who claimed New Zealand Labour was part of a conspiracy to bring down the Australian government after a NZ Labour MP asked questions about Joyce’s citizenship in parliament.



“Clearly the Labor party are involved in a conspiracy using a foreign government, in this case New Zealand, to try and bring down the Australian government,” Pyne said.

Joyce was a New Zealand citizen until August when he renounced it in order to recontest his seat in the Australian parliament.



He had been disqualified by the high court, under section 44 of the constitution, which prohibits dual citizens from serving in parliament.

Joyce won – with an increased majority – a byelection in New England and has been returned to the parliament and the cabinet, as deputy prime minister.