How Kiwis joined the Labor Party to change policy on New Zealanders becoming Australian citizens
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Get ready for a Kiwi invasion! Anthony Albanese’s government set out to make it easier for New Zealanders to get citizenship, and how they have been quietly lobbying Labour.
- Labor promises a new policy for Kiwis to become citizens
- Treasurer Jim Chalmers promised Anzac Day policy
Kiwis have been quietly lobbying the Australian government to allow them to become citizens again for the first time in more than two decades by joining the Labor Party.
New Zealand residents in Australia, since 2001, have been denied a path to citizenship and Centrelink benefits.
During the 2020 shutdowns, this meant that those who lost their jobs were unable to receive JobSeeker unemployment benefits and had to tap into their retirement savings to survive.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Friday reiterated a promise of a new policy to be decided before Anzac Day on April 25.
“This has been a big problem for a long time, and I wanted to acknowledge it in this forum – the difficulty so many New Zealanders have getting on their way to citizenship in Australia,” he told the Australian Banking Association and Trans-Tasmanian Business Circle luncheon.
Kiwis have been quietly lobbying the Australian government to allow them to become citizens again for the first time in more than two decades by joining the Labor Party.
“The intention is for those issues to be resolved, and for a new way forward to be resolved, by Anzac Day, in a few months’ time.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had been working on the issue with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and had continued that dialogue with her Labor successor, Chris Hipkins.
When Labor was in opposition in Australia, New Zealanders who wanted citizenship urged other New Zealanders to join Labor to effect change.
Vicky Rose, the coordinator of the Nerang Neighborhood Center on the Gold Coast, urged other Kiwis like her to become ALP members in 2020, as New Zealanders who lost their jobs were denied welfare payments.
“They are the only ones who are likely to do anything for us,” he told Daily Mail Australia at the time.
‘We have to be political.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had been working on the issue with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and had continued that dialogue with her Labor successor, Chris Hipkins.
“You can’t just say, ‘I’m not interested in politics’ because politics is exactly what puts us in our position, so we have to think strategically and in my mind, this is the best path we have here in Australia.”
What do you think a political party needs? They need numbers: 647,000 Kiwis live in Australia.
Membership of the Labor Party in Queensland costs $25 at the preferential rate, rising to $50 for those on the minimum wage. $75 for those who earn between $50,000 and $75,000 and $100 for those who earn more than $75,000 but less than $100,000.
Those on the low six-figure salary pay $150 a year increasing to $200 for those making more than $150,000.
Albanese marked a faster path to residency and citizenship for New Zealanders living in Australia in July, just two months after Labor won the election.
But as new policy agreements are drawn up, skilled independent 189 visa applications from New Zealanders will be frozen until July 2023, and that restriction began in December.
Until citizenship rules change, Kiwis can stay in Australia indefinitely, but they don’t have an easy path to citizenship, under a special visa category for New Zealanders, known as subclass 444.
This loophole, however, allows them to join a political party.