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Migration researcher Paul Hamer - Source: ONE News -
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Making the move to Australia could become more enticing if New Zealanders are given easier access to residency.
That idea was on the table when Prime Minister John Key met Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard over the weekend.
Prime Minister John Key wants to make it easier for New Zealanders living in Australia to gain long term residence.
It comes after many New Zealanders affected by the Queensland floods were not able to access Australian government grants.
Kiwis who moved to Australia post 2001 became ineligible to a range of services unless they became a permanent resident, migration researcher Paul Hammer told TV ONE's Breakfast.
As a result around 100,000 Kiwis are denied welfare and other entitlements across the Tasman.
He said Kiwis are not entitled to unemployment assistance, tertiary student allowances or loans and they cannot vote.
"Many people just think that the door is open over there and they walk right through it and they don't do a lot of research."
Hammer said it is unlikely there will be a very big shift away from this following Key and Gillard's talks.
"There's the so-called move to a better, easier pathway to citizenship, but I suspect there'll still be a very long waiting period."
He said there are things the Government should be doing in the short-term to reduce the plight of New Zealanders living in Australia without permanent residency, including looking closely at student allowances and entitlements for student loans.
"Basically the lack of New Zealanders' access to that is breeding something of an underclass of New Zealanders in Australia; where parents can't re-train if they need to get better employment and children who leave school suddenly find that they can't really get any tertiary education at all.
"And so they're looking at dead-end jobs, you see a rise in youth crime and a sense of hopelessness amongst people of that age."
He said if you have to wait for 8-10 years it is not going to shift these things in the short term so Kiwis will become marginalised.
Superannuation
One viewer told ONE News that she worked in Australia as a New Zealand citizen and then returned to live in New Zealand.
She said she was unable to access her Australian superannuation when she returned to New Zealand.
"Australia makes it difficult to get residency and after working and paying tax for a good many years, surely it would be fair if we New Zealand citizens returned to New Zealand we should be able to take their superannuation, as all other countries do when they leave Australia and head home."
She said she would like the Government to talk to Australia on her behalf about releasing her Australian superannuation or at least transfer it to her Kiwisaver.
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