New Zealand has vowed to continue "beating the drum" in its ongoing row with Australia over deporting Kiwi criminals.
With Foreign Minister Marise Payne in Auckland for talks with her trans-Tasman counterpart on Friday, another New Zealand minister picked the scab on the perennial sore point.
"This is a serious point of tension between us - it is corrosive," NZ Justice Minister Andrew Little told Sky News.
"But it is possible to have corrosive issues, and venal issues, between close friends."
Minister Andrew Little speaks to media at New Zealand Parliament. Source: Getty
NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters did not raise the deportations during the meeting, but later insisted he had not given up on pursuing the issue.
"The point is we have to begin on the basis that Australia has got, as we have, every right to write its own domestic policy," Mr Peters told reporters.
That said, he is still concerned about New Zealanders who settled in Australia as young children, only to be booted out of the country well into adulthood.
"If they're arriving at 18 or 19 years of age it's a different story," Mr Peters said.
"So yes, we're going to keep that dialogue up."
Senator Payne acknowledged the countries shared a "special relationship" but stood firm on the deportation laws.
"Australia, like New Zealand, would always consider its legislation in the context of our national interests and our national security," she told reporters.
"I think every sovereign nation would do so, and there is no intention to review those aspects of our legislation."
