N.Z. ‘chink in Aust, armour’

Press, 10 April 1979, Page 3

N.Z. ‘chink in Aust, armour’

NZPA Sydney The free-flow arrangement under which more than 400,000 people travel annually between Australia and New Zealand is described as the weak link in Australia’s migration chain, in an article in yesterday’s “Sydney Morning Herald.”

The article, the first in a series on Australia’s migration dilemma, is written by Peter Hastings and headed “Trans-Tasman Link the Chink in Australia’s Armour.” It describes New Zealand as the classic route for any determined overseas terrorists wanting to enter Australia.

“The problem lies in New Zealand’s visa arrangements with Third World countries, Australia's are quite different, and in the lack of computerised New Zealand immigration procedures,” Hastings writes. “It is probably the latter, reflecting New Zealand’s declining economic capacity, that contributes most to the problem.”

Under the free-flow arrangement, Australia is bound to accept any New Zealand citizen or Commonwealth citizen with resident status in New Zealand. Similarly, Australians and resident Commonwealth citizens in Australia can travel to New Zealand.

“But the rub comes with Netv Zealand’s arrangement with other countries by which visitors may enter New Zealand without a visa for stipulated periods,” Hastings says. There is little to prevent such nationals from buying an airline ticket in New Zealand and declaring on their incoming passenger card that they have been a citizen of New Zealand for the last 10 or 15 years. “At the Australian end, provided his name does not show up as a criminal or otherwise undesirable person on the immigration computers at Mascot (Sydney) or Tullamarine (Melbourne), or he does not excite undue suspicion by behaviour, accent or appearance, there is little to prevent his entry,” Hastings writes. “He is only one among the 3000 people arriving each week from New Zealand ports.” Other than New Zealanders, no foreign nationals can .enter Australia without a I visa and, he says, they can-

not therefore continue on to New Zealand as easily. Hastings lists three solutions which he says are in the minds of Australian immigration officials. One is the installation of a special computer system linked to main overseas immigration posts, and another involves Australian immigration officials working in New Zealand alongside New Zealand officials processing arrivals into both countries.

“Last, but not least, Canberra would like a trans-Tas-man visitor to carry some form of travel document which clearly identifies its possessor as the person he says he is,” Hastings says. “Many will object to the idea as contrary to the very conception of the free-fiow arrangement. Maybe. But an immigration survey of 900 New Zealanders visiting Australia under the arrangement last year showed that nearly 700 of them carried either a passport or birth certificate as a means of ready identification.”