Expatriate Questions

Specific comment is requested on the following matters which are seen by the Expat Party to
be of critical importance to expatriate New Zealanders:

1. What positive steps your Party will take to address the ongoing diminishment of the rights
of New Zealanders overseas, particularly long term New Zealand residents of Australia?
Many New Zealanders whom have settled overseas still need to have links at home.
Trans-tasman relationships will need to be fostered between the two governments
and the Mori Party will support this move. In our Whnau Ora policy (attached) we
explicitly recognise the importance of engaging with whnau living in Australia.
2. Whether your party supports gap funding support (out of NZ, in the form of student loans)
for New Zealanders in Australia of tertiary age who do not qualify for trade or higher
education funding via the Australian student loan system note at present no funding is
available but it is proposed that funding will be made available to New Zealanders who have
lived in Australia for a minimum period of ten years?
The Mori Party would like to see New Zealanders in Australia treated as domestic
students in tertiary education but there is a long way to go in order to work out how a
relationship could work in practice.
3. Whether your party supports the removal of geographic limits on lotteries board and other
funding and awards (e.g. Pride of New Zealand) for expatriate New Zealand causes (e.g.
deserving New Zealand clubs and societies and cultural groups and charities based outside
of New Zealand)?
We support initiatives that will promote Mori culture all over the world
4. Whether your party supports the non-equal treatment of expatriate and domestic resident
New Zealanders as relates to student loans?
We believe if you are home, you are home. Therefore you should be treated as a
domestic student. If you are in Australia eventually New Zealanders should be a
domestic student, once governments can get a solid agreement in place for citizens.
5. Whether your Party supports the full implementation of e-voting in time for the next New
Zealand General Election?
E-voting has the potential to greatly increase participation in a democracy and as
such we support the opportunity to enable more people access to their democratic
right.

6. Whether your Party supports a return to 10 year passports?
Yes (Note questions in the House asked by Hon Tariana Turia, Appendix One).
7. What incentives your Party will offer to encourage Kiwi entrepreneurs overseas to relocate
or expand their businesses to New Zealand?
We have a Mori Economic Strategy He Kai Kei Aku Ringa and it will draw upon
constructive relationships between iwi and across the world. The Mori sector here is
worth over $38 billion and is growing annually. Expats and iwi could have a natural
relationship in upcoming years. Read more here.
8. Whether your Party supports the repeal of the law (s80(1)(a) Electoral Act) which restricts
the right of New Zealand citizens to vote in the election where those citizens have not
returned to NZ in the last 3 years. As an aside, our own polling suggests that this policy
affects the New Zealand Maori community at much greater levels than non-Maori citizens?
The status of Mori as tangata whenua in Aotearoa should never be diminished at
the hands of the Crown. That is why it is essential for Mori representation in
government to ensure our people have a voice. Democracy is about participation and
belonging and in no way will the Mori Party stand in the way of citizens wanting to
participate in elections. We are against that wholeheartedly.
9. Whether your party would consider or commit to nominating a candidate to its Party list (in
an electable position) who was based overseas?
We would be interested in hearing more from your organisation about this idea
10. Whether your Party supports additional polling booths per capita in countries with high
expatriate New Zealand populations. For example Australia has 16 for the 600,000 New
Zealanders living there?
yes
11. Whether your party supports the concept of an electorate or electorates in overseas
locations with high expatriate New Zealand populations, particularly within Australia, the
United Kingdom (especially London), areas of Asia and the USA.?
Yes

21 February 2013.

4. Hon TARIANA TURIA (Co-LeaderMori Party) to the Minister of Internal Affairs: Will
he agree to follow the lead of many of our major trading partners including Canada,
Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and China, and introduce a ten-year
passport option, and if not, why not?
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN (Minister of Internal Affairs) : I am willing to consider changes, but I
am not convinced that a 10-year passport is necessary. A better option may be to enable
New Zealanders to get 5 full years of use out of their current passports. Moving to 10 years
would require a large increase in the passport fees at a time when we have just reduced
fees by almost 20 percent. The 5-year period also enables us to update security and
technology features on the passport and on SmartGate much more quickly, to reduce
counterfeiting, and to gain visa-free access to more countries.
Hon Tariana Turia: Does he agree that given that Mori and Pasifika families are larger, on
average, and that they travel either to Pacific nations or to Australia, where increasingly
their families are living, they carry a heavier financial burden if passports need to be
renewed twice as often, and what does he intend to do about this inequity?
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN: Yes, I do agree that Mori and Pasifika families are larger, on average,
but moving to a 10-year passport would create an estimated $200 million shortfall in the
passports account. This would need to be made up by higher fees, which would be carried
by users, and Mori and Pasifika families would fall into that category. We have already
reduced the cost of a passport by close to 20 percent. I think all customers, including Mori
and Pasifika families, are currently getting good value for money. And, importantly, because
childrens passports are subsidised by nearly 50 percent, large families actually benefit over
other passport users.
Hon Tariana Turia: So is the Minister saying that the reason for the reduction from a 10-year
passport to a 5-year one was to enable the Government to accrue revenue?
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN: No, I do not say that, but I have a quote from someone else who said
that A shorter validity period will help New Zealand keep ahead of fraudsters by retaining a
leading edge in technology. That was said by Rick Barker in 2005.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I seek leave to table a list of the First World countries with 10-year
passport times and the Third World countries, like New Zealand, with 5-year passport times.
Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no
objection. It can be so tabled.