Taking on Scott Morrison over deportees is a win-win strategy for Jacinda Ardern | Bryce Edwards

With an election looming, the PM needs to be seen to be ruffling feathers on issues of principle, but what comes next?

Australia's policy of deporting New Zealand born - but Australian raised - citizens has been a source of political tension for years. But Jacinda Ardern's step of fronting Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, in the most calculated and public way possible, took it to a new level. Until now, Ardern has played nicey nicey with foreign leaders, even when there are yawning gaps in their political ideologies. Imagine the list of issues she could have had a crack at Donald Trump over at their meeting last year.

So why this issue, and why now?