Australia has got the balance right with its treatment of New Zealanders living across the Tasman, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop says.
Ms Bishop has had her first six-monthly meeting in Auckland with her New Zealand counterpart, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully.
Mr McCully raised the plight of the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders living in Australia, who do not have any of the protections of citizenship.
Ms Bishop said there were budget constraints in giving those New Zealanders access to entitlements, such as Australia's aged pension.
"The idea behind it in the first place was to give New Zealanders the opportunity to work and study in Australia, and that's where most of the benefits are associated with working or studying in Australia," she said.
"We believe that we have the balance right but we're always prepared to listen to our friends from New Zealand."
Ms Bishop said she wanted to enhance co-operation between the two countries to make it easier to do business.
Prime Minister John Key will also raise the issue when he meets his Australian counterpart in Canberra later today.
Mr Key will have dinner with Tony Abbott on Wednesday night before returning to New Zealand, arriving back in Wellington at about 4am on Thursday.
Mr Key said Mr Abbott was part of a government that brought in those changes and there are fiscal costs involved, so while he would raise it, he was unlikely to make much headway on the issue.
