Aussies who move to New Zealand have full benefits and they can even vote as permanent residents. The original reason Australia changed the rules was to stop the flow of Asian immigrants that were using New Zealand as a stepping stone into Aus and that's fair enough.

The unfairness of the current situation is that a "Special Catagory Visa' means one is deemed permanently temporary. In my own case we employ four Australians part time, we have a successful business, we pay our taxes on time. Yet if anything serious ever happened to me or someone in my family we would get no support, even though we have lived in Australia effectively as permanent residents for nearly 7 years.

All it would take to right the situation is an amendment to the Act that puts a timeline in place... say if a Kiwi lives in Australia continuously for 5 years, is an upstanding citizen, no crime record, they will be considered permanent residents and entitled to apply for citizenship or a Permanent Resident Visa.

How hard can it be for the Government to do this?

You are believe me, going about it the wrong way.
Your story is shocking, and unknown.
Get a boat, dress your mates like refugees.
Get the Medea involved, but thinking that is what you are.
Get your signs up and front up for interviews.
Do not let any politicians put you on hold.
Print 1000 copy's of your letter quoted in post one, hand them out.
Direct action, it works.
Can not be bothered? then do the printing, add a page showing a date you intend to do all the above.
Send it to the Minister and make it look like you did not intend to.

Banjo suggested I do the boat thing, I gave up on the paperwork AGAIN after trying to work it out for the hundreth bloody time and having everyone from everywhere else but NZ not understand and tell me of course I can be a citizen.

What a load of absolute Kaka.

How hard can it be sbr108? Did you forget where you are?

Why should we give preference to Kiwis in special visas to allow them to live here permanently, and vicky versa?

Maybe all foreigners should be treated the same. i.e. They would need to be skilled to immigrate and qualify for permanent residece.

Is there any special advantage in just allowing Kiwis to come and stay at will? I am not sure if they are even counted in the immigration figures at present.

Jewerly hear me out.
This is so stupid it must be fixed.
I love running campaigns against idiots, even my mob.
First tell your story to Tony Abbott, he has turned nothing in to big issues so imagine what he can do with this.
Tell him you are Catholic and ride a bike, no being funny get 10 letters a week out ,from Friends your self and any one.
Be a trouble maker.
Still think the boat will work.
Dick Smith came into Sydney harbor throwing ice about and had every one thinking he towed an ice berg in.

Banjo we are spesh and you know it. :P Poppies and stuff, c’mon we’re like cousins – we share fire fighters and all sorts of things when each other has some strife. But it looks like it would be easier if I was from anywhere but NZ which kinda sucks.

Gotchya Bellybabe, they owe me for rejecting me the first time and taking my money to do it when I didn’t do anything wrong anyways. I’m going to copy the first post because I didn’t understand at the time what the problem was and since then I couldn’t find anything explaining what was up with the stupid special visa I have.

Dunno about being a troublemaker, have you seen what they are saying about the bridge dude in the other thread?