Tuesday, August 31, 2004

non- residents who have citizens


George Hawkins, Minister of Traffic Fines, is also Minister of People Who Come To NZ To Have Babies.
But he is going to amend the law so that babies born to non-resident parents do not automatically receive citizenship. The reason? These mums don’t leave NZ when the visas expire and their kids use the citizenship to scam off the country.

The move is part of a set of proposed changes to the Identity Bill which aims to tighten up citizenship and residency provisions.

However that wasn’t the initial reason for the proposed law change. The proposal was to combat people smuggling and terrorism. Winston Peters wants the law changed so that only citizens who have kids get citizenship for their family. Good idea, but it won't happen.

The problem is, we have far too many residents in this country, let alone the non-residents. Many non-residents don’t even apply for residency, and many residents don’t apply for citizenship. We`ll be getting even more as all residents applying to be citizens will have to wait five years to get citizenship, instead of the current three years.

But Hawkins will still collect their speeding fines.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually, my folks live in Australia and it was
several years before they finally decided to relinquish
their Kiwi citizenship and become Orstrylian.

(However, they still barrack for the ABs, Ferns and
Canterbury Crusaders in rugby and netball internationals, glad to say).

Craig