The leader of the Opposition in Australia has accused the country's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of being weak while trying to please Jacinda Ardern instead of keeping Australians safe.
During question time in Canberra on Thursday, Coalition leader Peter Dutton asked: "Why did this weak and incompetent Prime Minister put his close and sick sycophantic relationships with Jacinda Ardern ahead of the safety of Australians?"
Albanese has come under fire for throwing a lifeline to Kiwis being deported who had little or no ties to New Zealand.
It came after years of Ardern calling for Australia to do better. During a visit between the two leaders in 2022, Albanese said he would use a "common sense" approach, but that has now backfired.
Albanese was asked directly if he implemented direction 99 at the request of Ardern.
He responded: "What we do is we determine our own policy according to our own interest, and that is what we have done."
Under Scott Morrison's Government, Australia was deporting 501s at a rate of more than one per day. That almost halved when Albanese came into power.
But now, Australia's Prime Minister has torn up direction 99 and ordered it to be rewritten. He's vowed to keep the same common sense approach, but hasn't indicated how that will be applied.
Meanwhile, Winston Peters wants answers about the shock changes to deporting 501s.
"We do not want to see deportation of people with little or no connection to New Zealand, whose formative experiences were nearly all in Australia," Peters said in a statement to media.
"We note Prime Minister Albanese's previous commitment to take a 'common sense' approach to deportation of people to New Zealand who had effectively spent their entire lives in Australia."
There were calls in Australia this week for Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to resign over the controversy, but Albanese says he backs the Minister.
