New Zealand Report: Selwyn Manning joins Australia’s FiveAA breakfast team to deliver New Zealand Report. This week the John Key Malcolm Turnbull leadership meeting, scheduled for this weekend, is likely to be tense + Could a Australia V NZ Rugby World Cup final be shaping up? – Recorded live on 14/10/15.
ITEM ONE – Australia – New Zealand Political Relations Malcolm Turnbull will be in New Zealand late this week for his first prime minister to prime minister meeting with his Kiwi counterpart John Key. John Key is being pressured to seek agreement from Turnbull to stop New Zealanders from being detained in detention centres in Australia and Christmas Island. According to Government figures around 200 Kiwis are currently detained on deportation orders, their special visas revoked because they may have cumulatively served more than 12 months in prison over their lifetimes. John Key raised the issue with Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop in New York early this month. At the time he said his message to Bishop was blunt and that he would raise concerns directly with Turnbull. But now Key appears less focussed. He faced pressure in Parliament on Tuesday with the Labour Party demanding he place… concerns for the detained Kiwis … at the top of his list, of issues to discuss. This issue has descended into a political stoush, with Key calling his rivals Australia’s “lap dogs”. In reply, Key said to Labour: “It is just frankly a little bit rich getting lectured by the leader of the opposition when they were the government that signed New Zealanders up to worse rates, and like a lap dog accepted it for seven years and did nothing about it.” Malcolm Turnbull and his wife will dine with Key and his wife on Friday evening before formal Trans-Tasman leadership talks on Saturday. ITEM TWO: Rugby World Cup New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup pundits are ranking the Wallabies ahead of the All Blacks to win the Rugby World Cup final. And it could yet be a Australia V New Zealand final scheduled to play at Twickenham in London on October 31. For that to happen, Australia needs to beat Scotland in the quarter finals on Sunday, and either Ireland or Argentina in the semis. To get into the finals the All Blacks need to beat France in Cardiff on Saturday, and either South Africa or Wales in the semis. The All Blacks easy pool games have left pundits unconvinced they are in top form, while Australia’s dominating game in the ‘pool of death’ has placed it at the top of the New Zealand Herald’s ranking table. It states it is impossible to drop Australia down from the number one spot even though Australia eased off the peddle in the Wallabies V Wales game (15 – 6) last weekend. It’s getting exciting up there.New Zealand Report broadcasts live weekly on Wednesdays on Australia’s radio FiveAA.com.au and webcasts on EveningReport.nz, LiveNews.co.nz, and ForeignAffairs.co.nz.
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