This One News / TVNZ story is republished with permission
An Australian politician has referred to a planeload of deportees to New Zealand as “taking the trash out”.
The flight from Brisbane, bound for Auckland, was reportedly full of people who’d committed crimes in Australia.
A report by Nine News shows the reporter questioning them as they crossed the tarmac, asking, “How does it feel to be kicked out of Australia?” and, “Our country doesn’t want you, are you excited to go home?” to a handcuffed woman being escorted by two guards holding her.
The woman responded: “F*** off.”
In July, 1 NEWS revealed a special isolation facility was being set up to house the deportees in New Zealand as they undergo their 14-day managed isolation.
The issue of Australia deporting its criminals to New Zealand has dogged trans-Tasman relations in recent years.
Some have no connections with the land they’re being deported to as a result.
However Australia has stood firm, despite New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern calling out her Australian counterpart for deporting “your people and your problems”.
As the most recent flight took off, Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton referred to the deportations as the country “taking the trash out”.
“We’re talking about the most serious offenders here and our country is safer for having deported them,” he said.
New Zealand has mulled implementing a similar policy in retaliation.
