Sun to set on Australian safety net for Kiwis

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - For David and Michelle Oliver, Australia was not the promised land.

As with many of their compatriots, it became home almost by accident.

And, also like most New Zealanders, they had their skills, joining an expatriate community that has achieved among the highest rates of pay and lowest rates of unemployment of any ethnic group, including Australians.

But the Olivers are now also part of an endangered species - the freewheeling Kiwis who could come and go as they pleased, assured of a safety net.

Yet for the couple, and many other New Zealanders living in Australia, there is an understanding of Australian concerns over the size of the expatriate New Zealand welfare bill, the principle of automatic access to benefits and backdoor migration. Those concerns have led to the planned axing of universal and automatic access to welfare benefits.

"I think [the proposed agreement] is probably good because you're not going to get all the people who are coming here to go on the dole and cost Australia money," Michelle Oliver said.

Her view is shared by expatriate Sydneysider Brian Finn.

"Generally there seems to be quite a bit of inequity between what the Australian Government has to fund and what New Zealand has to fund so I think it's reasonable for Australia to look at adjusting this.

"I'm not opposed to it."

In Canberra, the Olivers are almost a template for transtasman migration, filling the bulge between the career-driven and the nomads.

David trained as a carpenter in Auckland before fleeing GST and looming recession to work first in Queensland - where the Kiwi network quickly found him a job - and eventually Canberra.

Michelle, from Hamilton, stopped off in Sydney to earn money for a planned leap to Britain.

Instead, she met David.

The couple and their children Joel, aged 11, and Renee, 7, now have an extended family in Australia - David's parents and three sisters and their families, including one of the sister's parents-in-law.

The Olivers run their own business, with Michelle also working in a doctor's surgery.

They are part of an expatriate population of more than 400,000 with successful lives in Australia.

Kiwis as a group are better-educated and more skilled than Australians, with a smaller proportion of solo parents, despite the $A204 million ($262 million) Canberra pays in benefits to them.