Australia's immigration policy change life altering for NZ citizens

It's been a whole weekend since the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced that the Australian government had relaxed citizenship requirements for New Zealand citizens.

I don't know about other New Zealand citizens living in Australia but this is very good news and I've spent the entire weekend buzzing. 

I'd already planned to eventually get citizenship but was going to go under the skilled visa which might not have even been guaranteed but now it is guaranteed.

Subject to being resident in Australia on the 19th of February 2016, and consistently contributing, and earning at least $53,900 as per five consecutive years of tax returns with good health and character assessments, New Zealand citizens now have a special pathway to citizenship.

Since the news came out there have been mixed reactions from New Zealanders.  Most have been negative saying the policy change doesn't go far enough.

I completely disagree.

The new policy announcement is a major concession from the Australian government and allows those who truly want to, the opportunity to become a citizen of this great country.

I've been disappointed in the reaction from New Zealanders and the New Zealand media.

For one thing they've said they want the policy to apply to new arrivals as well, however that shouldn't happen.  It would only see a further influx of New Zealand citizens and Australia just can't sustain that type of population increase.

New Zealanders who have been quoted in the media have come across as ungrateful when they say the Australian government hasn't given us much and that they're still taking advantage of us.  They're being unreasonable when they say it should apply to every New Zealander living in Australia.

It shouldn't.

Australia has the right to choose who it allows into the country and its home.  It has the right to decide who it will effectively protect and allow to join the family.

Yes New Zealand and Australia do have a special relationship and that special relationship has made this pathway possible, but it can't be one sided.  New Zealanders must show appreciation to the Australian government.

It's rather sad that the New Zealand media and people quoted have not shown a genuine desire to be Australian, to legally hold an Australian passport and call themselves Australian.  It's sad that the media hasn't mentioned that some people are truly happy they'll be able to vote in a few years time.  They haven't shown the people who are truly appreciative of the concession by the New Zealand government.

They basically haven't focused on what it means for people to eventually become a citizen, to know that one day they can make that pledge to Australia and show loyalty by becoming a citizen.

It's not like the NZ media says, it's not about welfare and it's not getting for paying taxes through working.  It's about so much more than that.

Citizenship means being able to stay in Australia forever and call oneself Australian.  This new pathway means holding an Australian passport.  It means legally being Australian, that it's not just a state of mind but a legality.

It's so much bigger than the New Zealand media seems to realise and I just can't wait to become an Australian citizen in five to seven years time.  It isn't just about having access to welfare and the fact the New Zealand media thinks it is shows how truly disconnected from the reality and the impact it has on people's everyday lives they truly are.

It means never being deported.  It means being able to apply for Federal government jobs.  It means being able to vote.  It means travelling as an Australian.  It means so much more than the New Zealand government and media realise.

It means we go from being a visitor to being a citizen of Australia.  It's the equivalent of marriage.  It's making a declaration of loyalty to Australia and it means showing pride about living in Australia.

I actually can't put into words just want the immigration policy change means because it means that much.

It's life changing and is the exact thing people like me have been wanting the Australian government to do for years.  I just wish more New Zealand citizens felt the same way and saw the magnitude of exactly what was announced on Friday the 19th of February.

Again, thank you Australia for finally realising that some New Zealanders are here permanently and have a genuine desire to show commitment and loyalty to the country, and thank you for allowing us to become citizens eventually should we meet the requirements.

Australia opens the door to the Kiwis

By now, unless you've been living under a rock you would have heard that Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and NZ Prime Minister John Key have struck a deal.

It's a deal that will change the lives of so many New Zealand citizens living in Australia.

Basically here's the deal.  After years of toing and froing, begging and having meetings, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has softened his heart towards the Kiwis.

This means if you arrived in Australia prior to February 19th 2016 and earned at least $53,000 per year over a five year period you can apply for permanent residency and citizenship from July 1 2017.  If you arrived today you have five years to wait, if you arrived tomorrow, sorry, you're out of luck.  You must seek permanent residency or citizenship under another pathway and spend up to $20,000 if you are a family and there is more than yourself to consider.

100,000 NZ citizens are immediately able to get this.  I'm not yet able to myself because although I've been here on and off since 2008 I have only been here consecutively since 24th December 2013.  I suspect many, like me, will have to double check their tax records to see when their qualifying date will be.  It would also be worth checking if superannuation is included in the $53,000 as that could put you under or just over.

Although new arrivals will not benefit from the policy, those already here now have a pathway to legally be Australian.  That means voting rights and that means security.

It's big news.

It will change the lives of many NZ citizens who call Australia home.

I'd hoped that when Malcolm Turnbull overthrew Tony Abbott this would be the outcome but I never imagined it would happen so soon.  I was hoping, but the news today is very welcome.

It's a major step in the right direction.

NZ citizens will need to work out whether or not to apply for citizenship under this pathway or to go through the skilled migration.

Either way, at the end of the day, the Australian Government and the Australian people have opened their hearts to the plight of the Kiwis and that's amazing.

I just hope that fellow NZ citizens do not take it for granted, and that when they, like me, take that citizenship pledge they honour their commitment to Australia. 

It isn't something to be taken for granted.

Thank you Australia.  This NZ citizen is very happy that very soon I'm legally going to be Australian and will be an Australian citizen, not just in spirit but legally.

This is so massive.  You don't realise just how huge citizenship really is until you actually know you can eventually get it.  No doubt there'll be a lot of Immigration Department jobs going, that could be a good field for unemployed Aussies to get into given this move.

Thank you Australia.

There's no need to turn the lights out in Sydney, why don't we turn on the stage lights?

I'm a news junkie and for the last couple of weeks the Sydney Morning Herald and News Ltd publications have been having a field day with coverage about the lock out laws following a LinkedIn post by Freelancer's Matt Barrie saying that Sydney was a joke and King's Cross was dying.

The general gist is that the NSW Liberal Government is a nanny state and that premier Mike Baird doesn't want people to have fun anymore.

This is of course in reference to the lock out laws which came into force in February 2014 following the deaths of Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie in Kings Cross.

Premier Mike Baird is being blamed for these laws and killing Sydney.

People are ignoring the simple fact that Barry O'Farrell was premier at the time the laws were introduced and that Mike Baird is simply not reversing them.

Yes, several bars have closed as a consequence of the lock out laws, but has there been any research about rising rents or any focus on that?  The answer is no.  The most recent bar to close is George Street's Bar Century which will close at the end of the month.  An article did mention that rising rents were a factor but instead zoomed in on the lockout laws as killing Sydney rather than accepting that maybe its closure was due to low drink prices and high rents.

Do any of these commentators and people on their soap box live in Kings Cross?  Would Matt Barrie really be in King's Cross at 3:01am?  Come on people, he's the CEO of Freelancer, surely he'd be more at home somewhere else rather than The Cross.

Have any of the critics taken a walk down Darlinghurst Road in the Golden Mile?  Well readers, I've saved you the trouble.  Here are a few photos from King's Cross during the day today, on a Saturday.

Anyone who walked down Darlinghurst Road today would have seen several things.  They would have seen people still drinking at the bars - Kings Cross Hotel, Las Vegas Hotel and Sugar Mill are three bars that are always busy.  Coffee shops like Froth and Five Borroughs are always busy too with seats out on the pavement.  As you can see from the photos King's Cross is far from dead.

You'll see from the last two photos that the former Astoria Hotel which had been empty for months is finally being developed into apartments.  Across the road at 30 Darlinghurst Road, Iris Capital have renovated a former backpackers into furnished apartments.  Further down the road the old Crest Hotel is being turned into apartments and the former Mercure is also going to house apartments.

The last photo is off Llankelly Place which has several cafes and an art gallery, which if you didn't venture off the main strip you wouldn't even know it existed.

King's Cross is not dying, far from it.  It's evolving and becoming a different area, but it still maintains its heart and soul.  The heart and soul people don't talk about is one of creativity and culture combined with development and gentrification.  That's not a bad thing.  King's Cross has always been home to creative types like presumed murdered journalist, Juanita Neilsen (pictured below) who ran a newspaper from her Victoria Street terrace, Dame Mary Gilmore who was a poet, and several other media personalities including SBS's Lee Lin Chin and even former Prime Minister Paul Keating.

King's Cross will never die.

The major issue that's being highlighted with the anti King's Cross headlines is that people don't know King's Cross for what it really is, an artistic Mecca in Sydney. One of the plaques on Darlinghurst Road even says, "many Sydney 'identities" who chose artistic and creative lives above money."

Kenneth Slessor is one such person.  He was a poet and journalist who lived in King's Cross.  He is responsible for the plaque, "you find this ugly, I find this lovely" taken from a poem, William Street, written in 1935.

King's Cross once housed a couple of theatres (King's Cross Threatre and  Newsreal Theatrette, and the ABC several years ago until 1984 as shown in the below photograph published by Crikey. This photo shows the King's Cross Theatre where the new apartment building, Omnia is being developed on the corner of Darlinghurst and Victoria Roads.

There has always been so much more to King's Cross than alcohol and the night life.  It has a vast history of arts and writing that people don't tend to talk about.  To say the area is dying ignores the other important aspects of its history and shows that the state government was right to introduce the lock out laws. 

It's rather sad that people are complaining there's nothing other than drinking to do.  There is loads to do in Sydney and if people really need to drink then they can do so outside of the CBD or before 3am. 

Or, are people so dependent on alcohol that they can't see that, in which case the state government has a huge drinking culture problem on their hands.

The simple facts remain, Kings Cross is still busy and there is so much more to the area than drinking, along with Sydney as a whole.  People could go to the zoo, casino, beaches, see the harbour, go to movies or if they really do need to drink they can do that outside of the CBD.  Is it really so hard to find another place to drink if it's so important to them?

Sydney's not dying and there is no need to turn the lights out like Freelancer CEO Matt Barrie suggests, but maybe he should go to Melbourne as he'd obviously be more at home there and doesn't appreciate all Sydney has to offer.

King's Cross is changing so with the apartment development why not take this as an opportunity to develop live music venues and theatres for local productions and local actors and writers?  Why not take this as a chance to return King's Cross to its true roots rather than giving up on such an interesting and special area?

The Cross is not dying, it's evolving and returning to its artistic heritage

By now you have probably read Matt Barrie's opinion piece on several news sites after it was originally published on LinkedIn.

Matt Barrie penned a piece saying Sydney has died because of the lockout laws which followed the deaths of Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie after being killed by one punch.

There are a few things people should know about Kings Cross, the suburb in which these attacks happened.

Kings Cross has long been remembered as a red light district, a place of drunken debauchery and drugs.  For several years it has been known as a place of crime.

However there is another side to Kings Cross people don't talk about.  That's its arts and culture side.

Most people probably don't know it used to house theatres and even the ABC at one point.  Several Australian celebrities like Charlotte Dawson and Jodi Anasta (née Gordon) have lived there.

Kings Cross has housed many poets, writers and journalists like Mary Gilmore and the late Juanita Neilson.  Neilson was a journalist who went missing on July 4th 1975 and whose body has never been found.

When people say Kings Cross is dying that's simply untrue.  It's changing, but change isn't a bad thing.

The locals, such as myself, know there's a sense of community with the cafe owners at places like Bella Vita (best Eggs Benedict in Sydney) and Five Boroughs).  There is the El Alamein Fountain on McLaey Street.  

Has anyone noticed the pavement plaques and the old heritage buildings?  They tell the story of the area's history and give insight into who the locals are.

It's time people realised there is more to Kings Cross than alcohol and drugs; and it's rather sad nobody has delved into the area's history which consists of arts and writers.

Standards in relationships: friend or foe?

This blog was originally written in November 2004 and first appeared on the website I ran at the time, www.slinky.net.nz (which ceased to exist by 2006)

How many times have you walked into a relationship with a feeling of de ja vu?  If you are anything like me then chances are that it has happened several times.  When I say walked into a relationship with a feeling of de ja vu, what I am talking about is one of two possibilities.  The first possibility is that you will fall head over heals in love with the other person but the feelings will not be reciprocated.  The second possibility is that the other person will fall head over heals in love with you but you will not reciprocate their feelings because you are not yet over the person you were in love with before them.  It honestly does go in this pattern; the ones who you love never love you back and the ones you don't love back do love you and would do anything for you.

     I have been in this situation several times and I have never found a solution.  I asked a few of my friends if they had found the same thing and they said they had, as this was the case we giggled together for quite some time before going back to this discussion.  One of my close friends said that, 'you do have a balance of feelings in the beginning".  This is where both people feel the same way for each other but over time one of the people will have their feelings dwindle into nothing whilst the other will have the feelings grow and grow.   My friend and I reached the conclusion that the reason why we don’t seem to find that balance is because of the law known as Murphy’s – if anything can go wrong then it will go wrong.

     Why does this happen I begun to wonder, is it because we have a criteria in this day and age that we may not have had 20 or even 10 years ago?  I know that I have a criteria of attributes that I look for in a partner and if the potential mate does not meet one of them, I will instantaneously rule them out.  Why should I settle for less than I deserve?  The one person who did meet my criteria did not feel the same way and ever since that happened I have been struggling to find anyone who is deserving of my time.  It took me 18 years to find that one person who met my criteria and I believe that if one person can meet my criteria then surely there is another person out there who will meet my criteria.  

     Does this make people living in this day and age horrible people because we settle for nothing but the best?  No, it doesn't in my opinion.  It just means that we have learned from our parents mistakes; after all several of our parents were getting divorces.  A lot of our parents would then remarry and we would find that they would be with that person for the rest of their lives.  At present my parents are in the process of separating, ten years later than most of my peers experienced the same thing.  On the other hand if we truly analyze this situation, maybe the reason why our parents do get divorces is because they got married at a younger age and thus grew during the marriage to the point where they were a different person to when they got married.  These days people are keen to travel and study and begin a steady career before getting married and there is a chance that this is a good thing because by the time one does get married they will have grown into themselves whilst our parents were getting married and having children while they were barely out of their teenage years.  I believe that before getting married it is best to find out who you truly are and what your objectives are in life.  If you don't know yourself when you walk into relationships then your partner is not going to have a chance of getting to know you either.  While we are on the topic of who we are as people, and knowing ourselves we must realize that in order to attract a partner who we find desirable we must feel good about ourselves first.  It really is true what that old saying does say; “you have to love yourself before anyone else can love you back”.  People also attract people who are similar to themselves so if you are a friendly, loving person then this is the type of person you will attract whilst if you are a nasty person who only cares about yourself then this is the type of person you will attract.  I know this very well, when I am feeling fantastically about myself then I attract others that feel similarly about themselves.  If it is true for me then I believe that it is true for everyone else.

     The bottom line is that our parents’ generation walked into marriage and relationships a lot younger than this generation and this could be why they were subject to so many divorces and failed marriages.  When you walk into a relationship do not give up straight away but; at the same time you must not settle for anything less than what you deserve.  This may sound a little bit contradictory but what I am saying is give someone a chance to prove themselves over a few dates before you write them off and then after those dates if you still do not see a future with them then the chances are that you never will and as harsh as that sounds it is the truth.  And another final point is that we do in fact learn from history and it very rarely repeats itself; well in an ideal world it wouldn’t but we most certainly can and do learn from history.