a cabinet reshuffle. That same month, the Australian Government amended the Migration Act 1958 that facilitates the cancellation of Australian visas for non-citizens who have served for more than twelve months in an Australian prison or if immigration authorities believe that they pose a threat to the country. This stricter character test also targets non-citizens who have lived in Australia for most of their lives and have family there. As of July 2018, about 1,300 New Zealanders have been deported since January 2015 under the new section 501 "character test." Of the deported New Zealanders, at least 60 per cent were of Māori and Pacific Islander ethnicity. While Australian officials have justified the deportations on law and order grounds, New Zealand officials have contended that such measures damage the "historic bonds of mateship" between the two countries. Following a meeting between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in February 2015, the Australian Government agreed to give New Zealand more advance warning about the repatriation of deported criminals so that NZ authorities could better manage "at risk" deportees. In October 2015, Abbott's successor Malcolm Turnbull reached an agreement with Key to allow New Zealanders detained at Australian immigration detention centres to fly home while they appealed their visa applications and to fast-track the application process. The Fifth National Government also passed Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Act 2015 in November 2015 which established a strict monitoring returning for 501 returnees. The law allows the chief executive of the Department of Corrections to apply to a district court for special conditions on returning prisoners including submitting "identifying particulars" such as photographs and fingerprints. While the Returning Offenders Act's strict monitoring regime reduced recidivism rates from 58% in November 2015 to 38% by March 2018, the New Zealand Law Society expressed concern that the Act potentially violated the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 by imposing "retroactive penalties and double jeopardy" on former offenders. In February 2016, Turnbull and Key reached an agreement to give New Zealanders in Australia a pathway to citizenship if they had been earning above the average wage for five years. In July 2017, the Australian Government introduced the "Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)" which allows New Zealanders who have been Australian residents for five years to apply for citizenship after 12 months. The visa also requires applicants to maintain an annual