Lushington D. Brady: Maybe Robert Muldoon Was Right?

The door is wide open for Kiwi opportunists. But who’s winning?

Back in the day, Robert Muldoon used to joke that Kiwis moving to Australia raised the IQ of both nations. It was a great one-liner, but it was also a cheap play to the parochial peanut gallery. It especially helped Muldoon paper over an embarrassing fact: Australia was carrying the can for New Zealand’s failure to provide opportunity for locals.

After all, Australia bore the cost of Kiwi no-hopers queuing up outside the Manly dole office, at the same time as it benefited from NZ-bred talent finding their feet on a bigger stage. Somewhere in the middle was Russell Crowe. But I digress.

Don Brash: Australia our closest frenemy

The announcement over the weekend that Australia has decided to allow New Zealanders who have lived in Australia for four years to acquire Australian citizenship has been greeted with mixed emotions in New Zealand.

On the one hand, a great many people have welcomed the new policy with enthusiasm – it makes it easier for New Zealanders who have lived in Australia for many years, but who have been denied many of the benefits of Australian citizenship, to acquire those benefits. And it makes it easier for New Zealanders who are finding it tough in New Zealand at the moment to contemplate moving across the Tasman.