Minister's talk of getting rid of trash stirs tensions between neighbors
Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton addresses media at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Oct 17, 2019. (ROD MCGUIRK / AP)
Relations between Australia and New Zealand have sunk to their lowest level in years after Australia's Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, referred to the deportation of New Zealanders, including a 15-year-old boy, as "taking out the trash".
Dutton is well known for his blunt talk and lack of compassion when it comes to refugees, asylum seekers or his stand on deporting foreign nationals convicted of crime.
The latest deportations included a stage-managed photo shoot for an Australian television network that went to air recently
The latest deportations included a stage-managed photo shoot for an Australian television network that went to air recently.
The news segment, on March 15, featured an excited journalist trying to interview some of the New Zealanders being deported.
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He asked one, "How does it feel being kicked out of Australia?" and said to another, "Our country (Australia) doesn't want you. Are you excited to go home?"
Late in the segment, Dutton described the exercise as simply "taking out the trash". The comment pleased many of Australia's right-wing commentators but infuriated its neighbors on the other side of the Tasman Sea.
To make matters worse, the segment aired on the second anniversary of the Christchurch mosques massacre, on March 15, 2019, in which 51 men, women and children were murdered by Brenton Tarrant, an Australian.
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Tarrant remains in New Zealand, serving a life prison term in an Auckland jail.
New Zealand politicians and commentators say trans-Tasman relations have sunk to a 40-year low, and the country's Green Party went as far as calling Australia a "rogue nation" that "persistently flouts human rights laws".
New Zealand's Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said Dutton's comments "only serve to trash his own reputation".
The leader of the opposition National Party, Judith Collins, a conservative of the same political stripe as Dutton, described the deportation as inhumane.
"The 15-year-old (one of those being deported on March 15) no doubt has been involved in something he shouldn't be involved in but actually you have to be human.
"It was a pretty poor call for Minister Peter Dutton to come out and start talking about sending out the trash to New Zealand in the same week that we were commemorating… an Australian who came here and killed 50-odd people in New Zealand and injured so many more."
The row is the latest inflammation of tensions between the two allies.
'Exporting problems'
A month ago New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, accused Australia of "exporting its problems" amid an argument over a former dual New Zealand-Australian citizen who is allegedly aligned with the Islamic State, or ISIS.
One New Zealand commentator said: "This dehumanizing treatment is what passes for necessary hardline immigration policy in Australia. In its very high human cost, failure of binding child rights standards, and international criticism, it is very much in line with Australia's longstanding approach to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
"Australia has been thought of as outside human rights norms and any moral standard of fairness for some time. In fact, our neighbor has been repeatedly found to be enforcing policy that amounts to literal torture on its offshore prison islands."
The United Nations has been critical of Australia's treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. Australia's Pacific neighbors have been more than outspoken about its attitude toward climate change.
For months now Australia has deported not only New Zealanders but other foreign nationals who were charged with serious crimes. Dutton said recently he had deported 700 foreign nationals this year alone.
