“Really pleased the number are so high”

Joanne Cox, the Chair of Oz Kiwi, told AM on Tuesday the changes a month ago were a long time coming.

There are currently around 670,000 Kiwis living in Australia but Cox believes that number will continue to grow quickly. 

“We’re really pleased the numbers are so high. To put it into context, on an average month, Australia received 12,000-15,000 applications for citizenship. So basically the same number of New Zealanders have applied in one month as would ordinarily apply from all other nationalities,” she said. 

“It’s quite a good number to have and we expect those numbers just to keep moving along like that for at least the next several months and probably over the next year, there’ll be further spikes in those numbers as people realise how easy it is to actually achieve the citizenship goal.”

Cox is doing the opposite of Adding. She is moving back to New Zealand after living in Australia for 15 years. 

She said family reasons brought her back home to New Zealand as well as it being her long-term plan.

But she did have a warning for any Kiwis looking at packing their bags and moving to Australia. 

“People do have to be aware of what the situation is in Australia. They are a permanent resident only for citizenship purposes, so they can apply for citizenship once they’ve resided for four years,” she said. 

“But until they become a citizen they don’t actually have other rights. They can’t get any social services, they can’t get student loans if they have a child born in Australia, they’re not a citizen at birth, they have to wait until age 10 or apply with their family.” 

While Australia is considered to have better housing, cheaper cost of living on average and better pay packets, Cox said the major downside was racism. 

“The racism of Australia, the political situation, it’s a lot further to the right in Australia and historically they’ve had those issues. That is illustrated by the injustice of the Special Category Visa, having no pathway to citizenship,” she said. 

“Basically at its core, it’s a racist policy instigated by the [John] Howard Government. So New Zealand is a lot more pleasant place and politics is a lot more friendly, even though you might not think it.” 

Watch the full interview with Tamzyn Adding and Joanne Cox in the video above.