[2] This often centres upon sports[3] and in commercio-economic tensions, such as those arising from the failure of Ansett Australia and those engendered by the formerly long-standing Australian ban on New Zealand apple imports.

[4] Both countries are constitutional monarchies and Commonwealth realms – sharing the same person as the sovereign and independent head of state – with parliamentary democracies based on the Westminster system.

Abel Tasman in two distinct voyages in the period 1642–1644 is recorded as the first person to have coastally explored regions of the respective landforms including Van Diemen's Land – later named for him as the Australian state of Tasmania.

The first voyage of James Cook stands as significant for the circumnavigation of New Zealand in 1769 and as the European discovery and first ever coastal navigation of Eastern Australia from April to August 1770.

This was helped by the development of refrigerated shipping, which allowed New Zealand in particular to base its economy on the export of meat and dairy – both of which Australia had in abundance – to Britain.

This was partially a result of Britain joining the European Economic Community in the early 1970s, thus restricting the access of both countries to their biggest export market.

Whereas military personnel from both countries participated in UNTSO, the Multinational Force and Observers to Sinai, INTERFET to East Timor, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, UNMIS to Sudan, and more recent intervention in Tonga.

A bronze memorial statue of a digger holding a Lee–Enfield rifle resting on his arms reversed was placed on the western end of the bridge on Anzac Day in 2000.

[31] A pioneering solo kayak journey from Tasmania by Andrew McAuley in early 2007 ended with his disappearance at sea and presumed death in New Zealand waters 30 nmi short of landfall at Milford Sound.

The only major exception to these travel privileges is for individuals with outstanding warrants or criminal backgrounds who are deemed dangerous or undesirable for the migrant nation and its citizens.

The Victoria University of Wellington researcher Paul Hamer claimed that the 2001 changes was part of an Australian policy of filtering out Pasifika migrants who had acquired New Zealand citizenship and were perceived to be exploiting a "backdoor access" to Australia.

The law allows the chief executive of the Department of Corrections to apply to a district court for special conditions on returning prisoners including submitting "identifying particulars" such as photographs and fingerprints.

[63][64][62] In February 2016, Turnbull and Key reached an agreement to give New Zealanders in Australia a pathway to citizenship if they had been earning above the average wage for five years.

In addition, Section 116 of the Migration Act 1958 also gave the Australian Immigration Minister the power to cancel the visas of lesser offenders without considering their ties to Australia.

"[71] In response, Dutton vowed to continue deporting non-citizen criminals and criticised New Zealand for not doing enough to assist Australian naval patrols intercepting the "people smugglers.

[62] In 25 October 2018, the Australian Immigration Minister David Coleman introduced the Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test) Bill 2018 in response to reports that some judges had reduced criminal sentences to avoid triggering the Section 501 threshold for mandatory visa cancellations.

[62][74] In late February 2020, Prime Minister Ardern criticised Australia's policy of deporting New Zealanders as "corrosive", saying that it was testing the relationship between the two countries.

In December 2019, the New Zealand media company Stuff reported that 80% of appeals to the AAT were rejected or affirmed the Australian Government's visa cancellation orders.

[89] Both Police Commissioner Andrew Coster and New Zealand National Party leader Christopher Luxon have attributed the rapid surge in gang membership and organised crime between 2018 and 2022 to repatriated 501 deportees.

[89][90] Following the 2022 Australian federal election held on 21 May 2022, Ardern announced that she would press the newly-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government on the 501 deportation policy.

[92][93] On 8 July, Albanese stated during a meeting with Ardern that his government would commit to amending the Section 501 policy to consider prospective deportees' long-term connections to Australia.

[94][95][96] In response, Shadow Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews expressed concerns that modifying the Section 501 policy would allow foreign criminals to remain in Australia, endangering public safety and security.

[96] On 20 December 2022, High Court Judge Cheryl Gwyn ruled in favour of a former 501 deportee known as "G," who challenged the Government's authority to impose special conditions upon his return to New Zealand.

[63] On 21 December, the Crown Law Office appealed against Gwyn's High Court ruling, citing its implications for the Returning Offenders Act's monitoring regime.

[123] Flowing from the implementation of the ANZCERTA:[124] One example of a formerly longstanding trading issue unresolved by the closer economic relations was Australia's restriction of the import of apples from New Zealand owing to fear of introducing fire blight disease.

Moreover, and most ironically Māori people had voting rights in Australia in certain jurisdictions between 1902 and 1962 as a result of the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, part of the effort to allay New Zealand's concerns about joining the Federation.

When Australia's former opposition leader, John Hewson, raised the issue in 2000, New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark remarked that he could "dream on".

[149]The two countries and their colonial precursors have enjoyed unbroken friendly diplomatic relations over the entire period of their coexistence from the early nineteenth century up to the present.

In the period from 2001 to 2007 New Zealand accepted certain boat arrival intending migrants to Australia for immigration processing as part of the Pacific Solution otherwise focused upon the detention centre commissioned at Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

[155] In the Lowy Institute's 2022 poll, New Zealand again ranked as the most favourably viewed country by Australians, with a 86% rating, placing it ahead of Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan.