Kia Ora! Kiwis say G’Day to Australian citizenship in Port Hedland

New Zealanders living in Australia for more than four years can soon expect to become Australian citizens without needing to apply for a permanent visa. Under a regulatory reform that will come into effect on July 1, special category holders will be eligible to become Australian citizens making them entitled to vote, work in the public sector, and receive financial benefits funded by the government. Created in 1994 the special category visa is a free, temporary visa allowing New Zealanders to visit, study and stay in Australia. The changes are expected to benefit 300,000 to 350,000 New Zealanders. In 1982, Port Hedland resident Ileen Ema moved from Oueroa, a region near Hawke’s Bay on the North Island, to Sydney after her husband moved for work. The couple moved between Sydney and the Gold Coast before settling in Port Hedland and opening Seven Four Seven, a Kiwi grocery store, in 2007. Since the Federal Government announced the reform in April, Ms Ema said she has considered becoming an Australian citizen to guarantee familial security. “I’ve got my son, my grandson, and great-grandkids living all over Australia. My son is actually an Australian citizen,” she said. Joanne Cox, chair of Oz Kiwi, the peak body for New Zealanders living in Australia, said the reform had been welcomed as a “radical change”. “We’ve had zero push-back on this because it’s about the sense of belonging. They can have voting rights, they can actually become a citizen of the country that they’ve decided to call home,” Ms Cox said. “Generally, what happens for people who live abroad, after about four or five years you start to feel more attached to your adopted home and want to participate more. You get more interested in the politics of the place and put down your roots as people start relationships with a local citizen.” Having served the Port Hedland community for 23 years, Ms Ema said an Australian citizenship would bring her a sense of civic belonging. “I’ve stayed in Port Hedland for a long time and I would like to remain here in Port Hedland. I’ve been here since 2000 and I feel like I’m a part of the community and I do a lot of community work,” she said. “I supply all the (New Zealand) food for the Kiwis here. I also supply food for the Australians here too, they like our beef burger patties which they all come and support. The community’s been really good to me.” While New Zealanders residing in Australia as permanent residents are eligible for Medicare and WorkSafe, they have limited access to government-funded payments. Under the new change, Kiwis who become Australian citizens will be entitled to government payments including NDIS funding, HECS-HELP loans, and domestic violence services, a reform Oz Kiwi’s Joanne Cox described as “transformative”. “As a special category visa holder, you can’t access any government-funded programs such as domestic violence housing or the Women’s Refuge. So if a New Zealand woman who has an Australian partner, those children are Australian citizens,” she said. “If the relationship goes sour and if there’s family violence and she needs emergency accommodation and support, she’s pretty much locked out of the services. But once they become an Australian citizen, they’ll have the full rights of an Australian.” As July 1 inches closer, Ms Ema said Port Hedland’s Kiwi community was looking forward to the reform. “I want to get the citizenship application under way but I’ve been busy for quite a while, ordering and bringing goods in (to the store),” she said. “But there’s a need for it because a lot of people have settled down here and like living in Port Hedland, so of course they want to become citizens.” According to the 2021 census New Zealanders make up 5.2 per-cent of the Port Hedland population making it the town’s sixth-highest country of birth.