New Zealand can't "badger" Australia over its deportation policy, but Prime Minister John Key is hopeful he can convince Malcolm Turnbull to make some tweaks to it.
Changes to Australia's immigration laws, which came into effect in December, mean anyone who isn't a citizen who has served a prison sentence of 12 months or more can be deported.
That's led to around 200 Kiwis being held in Australian detention centres - including around 40 in the notorious Christmas Island facility - as they wait to be sent back to New Zealand.
Mr Turnbull touches down in New Zealand on Friday ahead of his formal talks with Mr Key on Saturday.
The deportation issue will be high on the agenda.
"When politicians on both sides of the Tasman talk about the fact that Australia and New Zealand are family, I think they actually mean that," Mr Key told reporters on Monday.
"But one of the ways of demonstrating that would be a bit more flexibility about where the threshold is set for this particular policy."
While Mr Key will be pushing for a special "carve out" for New Zealanders - which he thinks is justified given the nature of the trans-Tasman relationship - he said it's important not to box Mr Turnbull into a corner.
"We can't badger him, we can't force him to change a policy, but I think we can ask him to consider the wider ramifications."
Mr Key denied the issue was putting a strain on New Zealand's relationship with Australia.
He discussed the deportations with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop while the pair were in New York a couple of weeks ago and he has previously raised it with former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott.
