Good morning, and welcome to The Briefing.
The federal government asked New Zealand to keep its standing offer to accept 150 refugees from Australian-run detention centres on the table, despite refusing the offer in public.
Briefing notes prepared for New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and obtained by Sky News revealed Australia wanted the offer held over as a “back up”, in case refugee resettlement plans with the United States fell through. The documents also revealed New Zealand expressed a preference for families of refugees, rather than the single men who make up most of Australia’s offshore detention cohort. Home affairs minister Peter Dutton refused the offer in 2017, saying it was “the wrong decision to send people to New Zealand because you will start the boats” …
Read here
The Saturday Paper
