New Zealand Is Seriously Pissed Off About Kiwis In Aussie Detention Centres

    John Key said he had a "blunt" conversation with Julie Bishop about New Zealanders locked up on Christmas Island.

    The New Zealand prime minister has given Australia's foreign minister a "blunt message" over a new immigration policy that has seen up to 300 New Zealanders placed in detention centres or deported.

    The new law, under section 501 of the Migration Act, means that anyone who isn't an Australian citizen who has been sentenced to more than 12 months in prison in their lifetime can have their visa cancelled and be sent home. This includes people who have already finished serving their sentence and are living and working in the community.

    Around 200 New Zealanders are currently being held in detention centres, and another 100 have been deported.

    John Key confronted Julie Bishop at the United Nations in New York, warning that the issue could damage Australia's "special" relationship with New Zealand.

    "I had a chat with Julie about it and I was pretty blunt," he told Radio New Zealand.

    "It's a little 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.'

    "We also deport people; but not in the sense that Australia are talking about, and I do think Australia has to think about this from the long haul in both the way New Zealanders are treated long-term in Australia, and also this issue," he said.

    Nearly one in 10 people currently being held in Australian detention centres are New Zealanders, according to the latest figures. They are the second most represented nationality in detention centres, behind Iranian visa-holders.

    An Australian lawyers group says up to 5,000 New Zealanders living in Australia who have gone through the prison system could be kicked out of the country.

    Greg Barns from the Australian Lawyers Alliance also criticised the Australian government for putting detainees on Christmas Island.

    "It was previously used for asylum seekers who were seeking to come to Australia, and that was why it was established. There's no rhyme or reason as to why you'd use the most remote immigration facility in Australia," he told Radio New Zealand.

    One of the people being held on Christmas Island is 29-year-old father Ricardo Young, who has lived in Australia since he was four.

    He was granted parole after serving two years in a NSW prison for assault and aggravated robbery, but on the day of his release was moved to Villawood detention centre. Then, in the dead of the night he was taken to Christmas Island without any warning.

    "They ran on me at three o'clock in the morning, three to four in the morning with all batons. They didn't even negotiate and say 'listen you're going here.' They just came in and started whacking us," Young told ONE News by phone from Christmas Island.

    The threat of deportation took a terrible toll on 23-year-old Junior Togatuki, another New Zealand national who had lived in Australia all his life.

    He had finished serving a sentence for armed robbery and was awaiting deportation, when he was found dead in his solitary confinement cell in Goulburn Supermax.

    Junior Togatuki had lived in Australia for 19 years and was suffering from schizophrenia and anxiety. In March, he had written a letter to then immigration minister Peter Dutton, begging him to reverse his decision, as he had no family or connections in New Zealand.

    "I'll lose all I have. I'll lose my family. I'll lose hope in life if I go to New Zealand. I'll break down completely," he wrote. Authorities have ruled his death as a suicide.

    Julie Bishop has told her New Zealand counterpart that a full inquiry into the death of Junior Togatuki is underway, with a promise to hold further discussions.

    With increasing pressure on the New Zealand government to take action, John Key has vowed to take up in his first meeting with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

    With potentially thousands of New Zealanders facing deportation under the tough new laws, the issue could prove to be a big source of diplomatic tension for the close neighbours.

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