A move to include flood-affected New Zealanders in New South Wales flood relief is a fairer approach than that of previous administrations, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.
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Ardern spoke in Sydney this afternoon after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed New Zealanders would also be eligible for his government's support for people affected by flooding in Sydney and the east coast of New South Wales.
A one-off, means-tested payment of $1000 for adults and $400 for children was being made available to people who had suffered a significant loss in the flooding.
Albanese today confirmed equivalent financial assistance would also be available to New Zealand citizens on a subclass 444 non-protected special category visa.
Ardern said the inclusion of New Zealander migrants in Australia was a significant shift in policy.
"New Zealanders are Australia's best migrants in terms of the contribution they make here, it's only right that they get the same access to support and it's so pleasing to see the prime minister recognise that."
She said she would have expected New Zealanders to naturally be included in such measures by default, and it marked a return to fairness.
"What happened before was unfair - grossly unfair. I think it fundamentally represents a government that takes a different view to Kiwis in Australia and the contributions they make."
She said she saw it as as progress on the topic of New Zealand migrants' rights in Australia, which was also at the heart of concerns about the 501 deportees.
"I see it as a recognition of that contribution and we'll be working to continue to see progress. It will take some time, we recognise that, but this is emblematic I think of the step-change we're seeing in the relationship."
She expected to discuss the matter with Albanese during her meeting with him on Friday, she said.
"New Zealanders can see that they are, through this act, recognising that they are increasingly recognised and valued ... and now we need to continue that progress."
Tourism talk in Sydney
Ardern flew to the New South Wales capital this morning from Melbourne, where she had met with Premier Daniel Andrews and attended other events as part of her trade mission to Australia.
Ardern says she had a signing ceremony at Monash University which gave five New Zealand businesses access to a five-week bootcamp programme.
That would give entrants a unique insight into Australia's supermarket industry.
She said New Zealand and Australia did compete for domestic tourists, but international tourists were often interested in seeing both countries, and this offered an opportunity to collaborate.
On tourism, she said aviation companies specifically had an opportunity to reduce emissions through things like using biofuels.
She said New Zealand wanted tourists to feel good about their travel, but if only one airline was doing so it forced them to set higher prices, and they lost out on competitive ticket sales.
She said Qantas was also interested in this kind of work.
"We've got to give them that ability to offset or to mitigate."
Meanwhile, the tourism industry in New Zealand has had an incredibly tough two years, and the focus needed to be on furthering our sustainability credentials and ensuring that when tourists visited the country they left it better, Ardern said.
Later today, Ardern will attend an event at the original David Jones retailer in Sydney.
Later in the week - among various business-boosting exercises - she is also expected to meet with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet after giving a foreign policy speech at the Lowy Institute think tank, and meet with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Yesterday, she ruled out an imminent return to the red traffic light setting, and hit back at criticisms of the government's immigration settings, particularly for nurses.
