The agreement applies to those who hold a special category visa and have been working in Australia for more than five years

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

New Zealanders who have lived and worked in Australia for more than five years will find it easier to access citizenship under a deal reached by the leaders of the two countries.

The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, announced the “new pathways to citizenship” after hosting a meeting with his counterpart, John Key, in Sydney on Friday.

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But the Turnbull government has not taken up New Zealand’s offer to resettle about 150 refugees a year from Australia’s offshore detention camps, even as Key said it “still stands”.

The leaders also discussed rising tensions in the South China Sea after Beijing appeared to install a surface-to-air missile system on Woody Island, and urged all parties from militarising the contested region.

The citizenship deal applies to those who hold a special category visa, the one that lets people stay and work in Australia for as long as they remain New Zealand citizens.

Turnbull said a special category visa holder who had been earning more than $54,000 a year – the current minimum pay for a skilled migrant – could seek to become an Australian citizen.

“This will enable a large number of New Zealanders who are here and have been working here for five years, to be able to apply for citizenship,” he said.

“They will obviously be subject to the usual health and security checks in the normal way. I think this is a very important recognition of the very close ties between Australia and New Zealand.”

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Speaking at the same media conference, Key said the deal was in response to advocacy “for the plight of New Zealanders living in Australia who have been in a particular category that hasn’t allowed them to become Australian citizens”.

“This step today will help tens of thousands of those New Zealanders to one day potentially become Australian citizens,” he said.

“I think they are fine Kiwis; they will make fine Australian citizens. They will be ones that we’ll both want to claim as great New Zealanders and great Australians.”

The Australian government estimates about 60,000 to 70,000 people will be eligible for the new pathway, available from July 2017. It applies only to special category visa holders who arrived in the country between February 2001 and the day of the announcement.

Australia’s deportation of New Zealand citizens, including some who have lived in Australia most of their lives, has been a continuing source of tension in trans-Tasman relations.

Australian legislation passed in 2014 allows non-citizens to be deported if they have been sentenced to a year or more in prison.

Turnbull defended the migration law again on Friday, saying it was not targeted at a particular country and “applies to you whether you are a New Zealander or a Brit or Romanian or American or whatever you may be”.

But he said he had made it clear in discussions with Key last year that deportees could continue their appeals upon return to New Zealand.

“They are not prejudiced in their appeal by being back in New Zealand, and a number are doing so, and there has been actually quite a number of these appeals, close to 50% of the appeals have been successful, so you can see the policy is being administered in a very thoughtful and practical way,” Turnbull said.

Key said that while New Zealand continued to have concerns, it appreciated the work Australia was doing on the appeal processes.

As for New Zealand’s willingness to take in 150 refugees who the Australian government will not resettle, Key said the annual offer remained on the table but had not been taken up by Canberra.

“In the future, if the Australian government decided they wanted to, that’s definitely a possibility,” he said.

Turnbull signalled that the government was reluctant to take up the longstanding proposal because it was “utterly committed to ensuring that we give no encouragement, no marketing opportunities to the people smugglers”.

“We take into account what John has proposed, what John has offered, but we do so very thoughtfully, recognising that the one thing we must not do is give an inch to the people smugglers,” he said, citing the need to deter people from risking dangerous boat journeys to Australia.”

The Australian opposition’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, welcomed the citizenship announcement, saying it followed Labor’s pledge last year to consider the NZ residency and citizenship issue.



Marles said the pre-existing special category visa had allowed NZ citizens to stay in Australia indefinitely.

“While this visa category has promoted and supported close ties between our two countries, it does have the effect of leaving NZ citizens ‘permanently temporary’, preventing them from accessing some social services and health benefits that come with permanent residency or citizenship,” he said.