A campaigner in Australia is lobbying the Minister of Maori Development to change immigration laws in Aotearoa to match legislation across the Tasman, which prohibits certain rights for New Zealanders.
Since 2001, people who migrate to Australia from New Zealand have been barred from getting social welfare benefits, student allowances, jobs in the government and military.
However Australian citizens, including permanent residents, have none of those restrictions here.
Iwi n Aus campaign leader, Erina Anderson-Morunga, said she was appealing to Prime Minister John Key through Te Ururoa Flavell for Aotearoa to apply the same restrictions.
She said the point was not to hurt Australians but to show a mirror image of what happened to New Zealanders when they arrived across the Tasman.
The Ngapuhi woman based in Adelaide said she had written to Mr Flavell to approach Mr Key about the issue, especially after he acknowledged the inequality of the Australian immigration laws when he was in Sydney recently.
