An Australian reporter who hounded 501 deportees heading to New Zealand in a story slammed as "disgusting" and "disgraceful" by Kiwis has addressed the backlash on live television.
9 News crime reporter Jordan Fabris was given special access by the Australian Border Force to the "secret prisoner plane" at Brisbane Airport on Monday where he pestered the deportees.
"Our country doesn't want you, are you excited to go home?" he asked.
"How does it feel to be kicked out of Australia?", he asked one woman who replied: "f**k off".
The line of questioning was criticised by some New Zealanders for its hostility, with social media commentators saying it was "humiliating", "disgusting" and "disgraceful".
Other people, including Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta, took issue with a comment included in the report by Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
"It's taking the trash out, then we can make Australia a safer place," he said.
Fabris spoke again about the story in an update for 9 News on Thursday evening.
"It doesn't seem like many people in New Zealand are happy that this story ran on Monday," he said.
"It's had half a million views on our Facebook alone and today it hit the media in New Zealand that I gained access to this border force flight and highlighted some of these criminals that Australia is kicking out.
"Let's remember here, these people are convicted criminals. The New Zealand Government responded with venom at Australia's deportation process but their main target was Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton."
PR expert Trish Sherson told The AM Show she thought Dutton and the 9 News reports were "playing to [their] domestic, political audience".
"They love it over there. It's the same thing as Christmas Island - put the boot in," she said.
"I think why everyone has been so angry about it and why there has been such a reaction in New Zealand is because when you watch that footage of those people going across the tarmac and they have a camera in their face - it is awful to see people dehumanised and their rights taken away like that. For them to have language like 'taking the trash out', it's really taking it to the next level."
Magic Talk host Ryan Bridge, appearing alongside Sherson on The AM Show panel, pointed out that despite 9 News' report that the deportees are the worst of the worst - murderers, rapists - some of them had only been convicted of minor crimes.
New Zealand Prisoners' Aid and Rehabilitation Society manager Aimee Reardon reiterated that.
"It's just about remembering that these deportees are people and we all make mistakes," she said.
"Just because a minister or a policy paints these people as being a certain way - that's not the case. I know a lot of these people and most of them are kind, caring, genuine people who just need a chance to stay with their families and live their lives."
