Price of a ticket

As Sydney shivered through flooding this month, Jacinda Ardern was a sunny presence amid the grey days alongside her grim-faced counterpart, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

- BERNARD LAGAN

While he waded the city’s lake-like north, enduring tirades from people forced out of homes for the fourth time in two years, the New Zealand Prime Minister – more popular in Australia, it seems, than Aotearoa – was feted by Sydney fashionistas, scored a prime-time television interview with the national broadcaster and was rhapsodised in the Australian and Sydney Morning Herald.

Her visit culminated in a joint press conference with Albanese, where he offered Ardern all that she wanted – and more – for the 650,000 New Zealanders across the Tasman. Australia, he said, finally recognises that New Zealand-born criminals with little connection to their birthplace should not be deported there. Kiwis in Australia will likely get a pathway to citizenship and, possibly, the right to vote without becoming Australian citizens.

Sweet as, bro? Careful what you wish for, New Zealand.

Australia plays a hard, crafty game. In this new era of crippling skills and labour shortages, exacerbated by bare-knuckle competition for productive migrants, Australia will fill its own shortages from wherever it can.