Firstly,
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!
So on this special day where we celebrate all mums, I thought it would be a perfect time to discuss the circumstances of a dear friend of mine, who is a New Zealand citizen living in Australia.
As a mother she made the decision with her partner to move to this country a few years ago to have a new life, filled with greater opportunities for her whole family. Being NZ citizens they are allowed to come to Australia and live and work here for as long as they like, however they are not entitles to receive a lot of benefits that the rest of us (including myself) take for granted.
Currently she is facing the situation where she would like to return to school and study Nursing at University and 2 of her children are also reaching that time in their lives where they are getting towards the later years of high school and thinking about their future, which also includes tertiary study. Yet whilst the rest of us who have just been lucky enough to have been born here are entitled to government funded support such as HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP and VET-HELP, where lets face it we got to school do our degrees and pay for them later, they cannot access such schemes without jumping through ridiculous hoops.
Now, don't get me wrong, I completely understand that we can't just open up the system so its at a point where NZ folk just jump on a plane (with or without a few sheep) enroll in University or TAFE, receive a degree funded fully by the Aussie tax payer and then bugger off back home, but when people genuinely want to make a commitment to this country, when they genuine, do we really need to make it so hard?
For my friend, financially its impossible to move back to NZ for 6 months, uproot her children from school, close down her partners business and just leave for a while. Surely the system should allow her and everyone else wanting to live here forever the courtesy of at least applying for citizenship or residency whilst living in this country. They pay tax like the rest of us... so why the problem??? Why do we need the drama??
A current Affair on Channel 9, aired a story a few weeks ago about mail order brides. Aussie men who were on their third or fourth marriage to predominantly Asian women. These women marry, stay in the marriage for as long as legally required and then wallah!! citizenship!! What a farce!!
Perhaps my friend would be better off splitting with her partner each of them marrying an Aussie for five minutes, just so they can be given a fair go!
Wake up Australia!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment