Welfare switch catches Kiwis in a harsh land

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - New Zealanders are living in poverty and on the streets of Australia's big cities after transtasman welfare changes cut access to work programmes and a range of benefits.

Appeals for help to the Consulate-General in Sydney have soared, families are living hand to mouth, others in Queensland survive on food parcels and there are fears that destitute young New Zealanders will be forced into crime and prostitution.

Some are trapped in Australia, unable to earn the money to live, excluded from any form of assistance and not able to raise the money to fly home.

Increasing numbers are apparently being turned away from charities, themselves overburdened by an unrelenting flood of demands on scarce resources and limited by Government restrictions on the people they are able to help with funds provided by the state.

Many who arrived before this year's new rules created two classes of expatriate New Zealanders - those qualifying for permanent residency and those who come at their own peril - are still waiting out a two-year period before they can seek Government aid.

Unless they can pass the residency requirements faced by all migrants, those who came after the new arrangements can expect no help at all from either the Australian or New Zealand Governments.

Consular officials and welfare groups have warned Kiwis not to consider moving to Australia unless they have adequate funds, a return ticket, and a well-planned campaign to find work.

New Zealanders need to be aware that Sydney can be a big, ugly, savage urban environment, says Terry Fairclough, executive officer at the Sydney Consulate-General.

Patricia Taylor, who runs a voluntary advisory service and is working with consular officials and the Sydney Maori mission to try to set up some form of agency for Kiwis in trouble, said Australia was no longer a bigger extension of New Zealand.

It was different now, she said.

"People are still coming [with the belief] they can just get work and everything's fine, and if not they're still able to get things like dole services that were available in the past.

"Now the restrictions have come in and they're no longer able to pick up Medicare so easily, and no benefits are allowed."

There are no accurate statistics on the numbers of New Zealanders in distress, but anecdotal evidence and appeals to consular officials and community groups point to a growing problem.

Mr Fairclough said there were particular concerns for the most vulnerable: people who have mental illness, people who have drug and alcohol problems, and teenage runaways.

Examples of the growing crisis given to the Herald include:

* A family whose breadwinner became terminally ill, found difficulty in gaining medical assistance or other services, and arenow living hand-to-mouth in Sydney.

* Another family with seven children, surviving on one low income in a city where basic quarters cost $A200 a week and modest four-bedroom accommodation soars to $A400 a week, with no access to a range of benefits.

* Numerous cases of families moving between friends and relatives and living on their gifts of food.

* Young men on the Sunshine Coast relying on charity food parcels.

* A young Pakeha couple whose money rapidly evaporated as they hunted for work, forcing them to move from a low-rent hotel to backpacker hostel, and finally to seek help from the Sydney Maori Mission.

Although the overall unemployment rate for expatriate New Zealanders is among the lowest in Australia, the surge in numbers crossing the Tasman after the leaking last December of the details of the new social security agreement added pressure to a big post-Olympic slowdown.

From about 2600 in November, the exodus leaped to 4656 in December, 6306 in January and 5858 in February, before slowing to a still-high average of 2780 to the end of July.

With seven people chasing every job advertised in Australia it is a cruel market - and for the New Zealanders who miss out, there is no Government help.