Deportations, migration and closer defence partnership will be on the agenda when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets Anzac ally Chris Luxon in Canberra.

The two prime ministers will get together on Friday for their annual leaders’ meeting.

“Australia’s relationship with New Zealand is one of the closest in the world, built on our shared history and generations of cooperation across the Tasman,” Albanese said.

“We will continue to work together to advance our collective interests and to achieve a peaceful, stable, prosperous and resilient region.”

Cooperation between the two governments is already broad, with more than half of the New Zealand cabinet visiting Australia since Luxon’s government took office last November.

However, one issue – deportations – continues to cause friction.

New Zealand has long protested Australia’s practice of deporting criminals with Kiwi passports but with stronger ties to Australia.

Once in NZ, deportees have joined gangs in huge numbers. New Zealand argues they stand a better chance of rehabilitation in their adopted communities.

New Zealand won a concession from Albanese last year, when he agreed to consider these concerns, which led Luxon to describe the issue as “resolved”.

“We’ve got a government under Anthony Albanese that’s actually done New Zealand a real solid,” he said.

“They have actually made sure they’ve gone to a much more common sense approach to deportees.”

That was until earlier this year, when it was revealed that some deportees who had since won the right to stay in Australia had committed heinous crimes, prompting a reversal of the policy concession.

Luxon said it was back on the agenda and he would raise it “pretty directly” on Friday.

“Because we’ve got trust and friendship, we can actually talk about those things and have differences of opinion,” he said.

Officials also said Luxon would raise other issues relating to New Zealanders in Australia, with a record number of Kiwis moving across the Tasman.

New Zealand is enduring a prolonged post-pandemic economic slowdown, with a double-dip recession in the past 18 months, and forecasts of a third dip this year.

Last year, Albanese opened a pathway to citizenship for Kiwis who have spent four years in Australia, increasing the attractiveness of the move.

The two governments are also increasing collaboration in defence, with Luxon telling an audience at the Lowy Institute on Thursday night he was seeking interoperability to be a “force multiplier” for Australia.

-AAP