Automatic citizenship for review

By ANGELA GREGORY, immigration reporter

The Government is rethinking a law which gives all children born in New Zealand the automatic right to citizenship.

Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday confirmed the matter had been looked at by officials and should be further considered.

She said there had been a recent tendency for people to come to New Zealand to gain citizenship through their babies.

"So we need to consider whether there needs to be a response."

Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins also confirmed yesterday that the citizenship-by-birth issue was being worked on by a number of government agencies.

Mr Hawkins stressed there had been no decisions made, and the new Identity (Citizenship and Travel Documents) Bill to be introduced this month would not contain any reference to citizenship-by-birth issues.

"The issue of citizenship by birth, for instance of babies born in this country to mothers who are not New Zealand nationals, is an issue separate to matters covered in the Identity Bill."

There had been concern at the number of non-resident births in New Zealand which led to the Government last year bringing in new rules to make foreign women pay the maternity costs.

Immigration officials apologised this year to Tongans who were from last October singled out to provide pregnancy tests before getting visitors' permits to New Zealand.

In the Christchurch Coroner's Court last September a Japanese woman told an inquest into the death of her daughter she had come to New Zealand solely to give birth and obtain citizenship for the child.

National immigration spokesman Wayne Mapp said New Zealand was becoming a birthplace of convenience for people wanting to avoid immigration controls.

Mr Mapp said the Irish had just voted "yes" in a referendum denying automatic citizenship to children born there with foreign parents.

All countries within the European Union had taken similar measures, he said.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the Government had sold out to "PC evangelists'. One of his MPs, Edwin Perry, has a private member's bill which would entitle only the children of New Zealand citizens to citizenship by virtue of their birth.

But Children's Commissioner Dr Cindy Kiro yesterday warned against moves to deny citizenship to some children born in New Zealand.

Dr Kiro said that would go against the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which New Zealand was a signatory.

Mr Hawkins confirmed for the first time yesterday planned amendments to the Citizenship Act 1977 and Passports Act 1992.

He said the bill would increase the standard period of residence in New Zealand that citizenship applicants must meet from three years to five years.

Time spent in the country on temporary permits, such as work or visitors' permits, would no longer count for residence or citizenship purposes.

It also:

* Creates new offences of unlawfully issuing a citizenship document and unlawfully altering citizenship records, with a maximum penalty of 10 years' jail and/or a fine of $50,000.

* Issues passports for five years rather than the current 10 in an effort to avoid forgery, alteration or duplication.

* Provides for the disclosure of New Zealand travel document information for the Advance Passenger Processing (APP) border security system, which identifies unauthorised passengers before they depart for New Zealand.

* Amends the Passports Act to allow the Internal Affairs Minister to cancel or refuse to issue a New Zealand travel document in cases where national security is threatened.

Mr Hawkins said the last provision contained procedural safeguards such as restricting the refusal period to 12 months and allowing appeals to the High Court.

Green MP Keith Locke said the safeguards would be insufficient.

"It is not acceptable that someone who is not charged with any crime can be punished as if a criminal by having their travel protected," Mr Locke said.

Births and NZ

About 1300 non-resident births are recorded in New Zealand a year.

There were 56,130 live births in total in 2003.