KEY POINTS:
Qian Xun Xue is coming back to New Zealand.
The date of her arrival has not been set but the Herald understands Australian authorities have cleared the way for her to be reunited with her grandmother Liu Xiao Ping in New Zealand.
A source in Melbourne said welfare agencies in Victoria were expecting Qian to be flown back to Auckland and were working on that basis.
She is in foster care until New Zealand arranges for her grandmother to meet her in Auckland. Authorities in Melbourne accept that Qian - the 3-year-old dumped by her fugitive father at a railway station there last Saturday and known as Pumpkin - is a New Zealand citizen and that decisions about her should be taken by New Zealand.
NZ officials have cleared the way for her grandmother to fly here from China. Poor health means Qian's grandfather is unlikely to come.
Police yesterday confirmed that Qian's mother, An An Liu, had been murdered and there was a warrant for the arrest of her father, Nai Yin Xue, who has fled to America.
Last night, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove said: "All the stops have been cleared for them [the grandparents] coming here. There are no immigration holdups."
While Qian's grandmother has expressed a desire to take the child back to China, family court lawyers have said custody would have to be granted first. Other relatives, such as her half-sister Grace - Xue's daughter, who is in her 20s and living in NZ - could also seek custody.
The decision on where Qian will live and who will have custody of her will be made in a New Zealand court.
Grace Xue told Close Up last night she would like to foster Pumpkin.
"I have a responsibility in my heart to look after her. I would if everything was as simple as that. My heart is saying I want to bring her home to New Zealand.
"I would very much like to see her and introduce myself to her, let her know somebody's here."
Asked if her father was ever violent towards her, Ms Xue replied: "He was to some extent. I wasn't heavily abused, but slaps to the face, shutting in my bedroom, lots of yelling ...
"When I was younger I was frightened of him because I didn't want to displease him."
She said he was a selfish man. "I think he knows what he wants and he places himself above others - self-centred, I would say."
Ms Xue, who has a son and a "loving boyfriend", said her father left her soon after they arrived in New Zealand in 1996.
"He doesn't love me. I just decided I needed to be by myself and make a life for myself.
"He didn't think he had a responsibility towards me as a father."
She said the first thing that went through her mind when she heard her father had abandoned Qian was: "How awful. How could he do that to his own child?
"Then I realised that she could be my half-sister and I'm really worried about her wellbeing. What's going to happen to her? Is she going to be looked after? Is she going to go through the same emotions I did when I was little? What can I do to help her?
"I would say to him, 'How could you? She's just a little girl'. I'm angry, but I'm more sad."
