Fewer New Zealanders Cancelled from Australia

The number of New Zealanders living in Australia who have had their visas cancelled on character grounds – including criminal behaviour – has halved under the Albanese government, Emma Elsworthy reports for independent Australian news site, Crikey.

“The paper FOI’d documents that showed 129 New Zealanders were booted from the country in the 2022-23 financial year – which, one notes, is only nine and a half months through, but anyway,” Elsworthy writes.

“Compare that with 244 New Zealanders told to leave in 2021-22. Pearl-clutching opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan says it’s a sign ‘Labor [is] going soft on criminals, sex offenders and drug traffickers’. But former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern repeatedly (2019, 2020, 2021) slammed former prime minister Scott Morrison for deporting criminals who in many cases have lived, worked and raised families in Australia nearly their entire life.”

Original article by Emma Elsworthy, Crikey, April 21, 2023.