Kiwi hits hard times in Melbourne

Cathy Anderson. Photo / APN

Thousands of Kiwis leave each year for Australia in the belief the grass is greener on the other side.

However, once there some New Zealanders find themselves down on their luck, and without the support of family some end up living on the streets.

Yesterday it was reported Australian charities have been paying for Kiwis sleeping rough on the streets of Melbourne to return to New Zealand.

Cathy Anderson, 45, moved to Victoria from Rotorua in 2002 with her five children, looking to start afresh.

In 2001, Mrs Anderson's 15-year-old daughter Sarah died when the car she was travelling in turned into the path of a truck near Taupo. One week later, Mrs Anderson's partner Mathew took his own life.

Seeking a clean break, 12 months later Mrs Anderson applied for a job rearing calves across the ditch and was hired.

However, after work-related stress on her body crushed her vertebrae in 2004, she found herself unemployed, unable to work, and on the brink of being homeless.

"They made me redundant three weeks after the accident," she says. "Now I'm fighting for work compensation."

Mrs Anderson admits she has made the injury worse by continuing to work part time, but says she has had to in order to support herself and her children. She hasn't worked since Christmas last year.

"In all truth, the last year has been hell trying to get by," she says. "Luckily I've had the support of two kids and a friend. I've sold everything I don't think I'll need.

"Daily life for me has been a struggle."

Mrs Anderson has been living for free in a farm house three hours west of Melbourne, maintaining the property to earn her keep.

As she is not an Australian resident, she cannot receive some Centrelink benefits. Her application to get the disability pension has been declined by both social welfare here and Centrelink, the Australian Government's social welfare system, as she says the proof of her injury has been judged inadequate.

"I'm struggling to get the money together to go to Melbourne to see the neurosurgeon to get the proof," she said.

"I do get the family benefit - it's not a lot."

Mrs Anderson is aware many Australians have a perception some Kiwis leech off the Australian welfare system, but she says it is a misperception.

"A lot of Australians, particularly the young ones, they couldn't give a stuff about work," she says. "There are a lot of Aussies that don't work - that's why they get Kiwis in [to work]."

Mrs Anderson can sympathise with some of those New Zealanders who have ended up on Melbourne's streets.

"Those homeless people in Melbourne - I don't know their circumstances. We've got to look at their circumstances," she says.

"I thought I was going to be homeless when I had two kids at home."

When Mrs Anderson approached the Salvation Army to apply for emergency housing in 2004, she says she was told to return to New Zealand. She says she can't as her family are settled in Victoria.

"Everyone here says 'go home, go home'. All my kids are here, they're all educated and working here.

"That's the only reason I stayed. I could not move them all again."
Mrs Anderson has three grandchildren in Australia and one more on the way, and says all of her children "contribute" to Australian society.

Like their mother, none of Mrs Anderson's children applied for Australian residency when they arrived. She says this was so they could not drop out of school and go on the dole.

"It's either get an education or get a job," she says. "I haven't any leeches and I don't want any."

For now, Mrs Anderson waits, as she is taking her former employer to court, which she says is a "dragged-out" process.

"I've got to have a good attitude," she says. "You've got to keep your own head above the water because the Government is not going to help you."