New Zealand

New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, met in Wellington today for biannual Australia-New Zealand Foreign Minister Consultations.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, and the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Senator the Hon Zed Seselja, will visit New Zealand from 21-23 April.

Australia’s flight-path to recovery is well underway with the Australian Government welcoming the New Zealand Government's announcement that it will join the Safe Travel Zone between Australia and New Zealand.

The Governments of Australia and New Zealand, like G7 counterparts, are deeply concerned that changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system passed by the National People’s Congress on 11 March further undermine rights and freedoms and the high degree of autonomy guaranteed by China to Hong Kong until 2047 under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

The trans-Tasman relationship has never been stronger, as the alignment of our efforts to tackle the challenges of the past year has shown.

Today marks one year since the Whakaari/White Island Volcano Disaster, and we join our New Zealand friends to remember those who died in the eruption, those who experienced severe and long-term injuries, and the families and loved ones touched by this tragedy.