KEY POINTS
- New Zealand's new prime minister has flagged the prospect of joining an expanded AUKUS pact.
- However, Chris Luxon has reaffirmed New Zealand's "non-negotiable" nuclear-free position.
- Luxon has travelled to Australia for his first overseas trip in the job, saying security is his main priority.
New Zealand's prime minister has flagged the prospect of joining an expanded AUKUS defence pact but laid out his country's "non-negotiable" condition for involvement.
In Australia on his first overseas trip since winning New Zealand's October election, Chris Luxon also welcomed Australia's decision to fast-track citizenship pathways for the roughly 670,000 New Zealanders living in Australia.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday, Luxon framed - currently signed between Australia, the US, and the UK - as key to maintaining peace in an increasingly volatile Indo-Pacific.
"We know we're facing a more challenging and complex world ... [and the] defence relationship we have with our only ally, Australia, is very foundational for New Zealand," he said.
"So New Zealand is committed to doing our share of the heavy lifting in the alliance."
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon (left) with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Wednesday. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
New Zealand's anti-nuclear stance an AUKUS sticking point
Under AUKUS, Australia is set to obtain from the US after controversially scrapping a multi-billion dollar deal with French company Naval Group. Obtaining the fleet is known as pillar one of the AUKUS arrangement.
"We will always have our nuclear-free position, that's not non-negotiable for us in New Zealand," Luxon said.
"But we have our navies that work together and we want to see more interoperability, frankly, between our respective defence forces. From my point of view, we're interested in exploring pillar two (jointly-developed advanced military technologies), particularly in AUKUS and the new technologies and the opportunities that may mean for New Zealand to participate."
Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and former prime minister Scott Morrison when both were in office. Deportations were a point of tension in the Australia-New Zealand relationship under the former Coalition government. Source: AAP
Hipkins, who was in office for less than a year after replacing Jacinda Ardern, also made Australia his first international stop.
But with Far North Queensland experiencing major flooding, Albanese signalled that New Zealand's involvement in the pact would likely be based on deeper military cooperation.
"That has practical effect as well. It's about efficiency ... Our defence forces ... support each other at time of need, of natural disasters. That's just one area whereby increased cooperation could benefit both of our nations," Albanese said.
Anti-nuclear policy has been a central principle of New Zealand politics for decades.
It declared itself a nuclear-free zone in the late 1980s, prompting the US to revise its status down from "ally" to "friend". Australia remains New Zealand's only formal ally.
While some minor parties in New Zealand have called for its anti-nuclear stance to be repealed, both major parties and strong public sentiment are opposed to the idea.
That is a sticking point for full engagement with AUKUS which, apart from being signed by two nuclear-armed powers, also includes the development of nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.
But Albanese stressed that while Australia’s ships would be propelled by nuclear energy, they would not be nuclear armed.
"It's a very important distinction to draw. So certainly we see AUKUS as being very important for promoting stability and security in the Pacific," he said.
Citizenship changes welcomed
Roughly 14 per cent of New Zealand’s population - nearly 700,000 people - live in Australia.
In July, the Albanese government created an expedited pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders, prompting more than 15,000 applications within the first six weeks of the scheme.
Luxon, who worked in Australia for five years and has a daughter living here, welcomed the decision, saying personal ties between the two countries are "actually very close to my heart".
Luxon defeated predecessor Chris Hipkins (pictured) in New Zealand's October election. Source: AAP / Ben McKay
Luxon revealed Foreign Minister Penny Wong will meet her NZ counterpart "as quickly as possible after Christmas", which he said would help ensure "our plans and our responses are aligned and coordinated and mutually supported".
Deportations had also been a key friction point between Wellington and Canberra, with the former Coalition government maintaining a policy of sending NZ nationals convicted of crimes across the Tasman, even when they had spent the vast majority of their lives in Australia.
The Albanese government announced what it called a in February, with authorities to consider how long a person had been in the country when weighing their deportation.
