By now, many of you will have seen some of the sensationalist articles published under titles such as “Kiwi layabouts are flooding in” in News Corp tabloids around the country. Oz Kiwi does not believe such shoddy and inflammatory reports should be allowed to stand unquestioned. Therefore, we will be sending the following letter to News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch to request a full retraction and apology to those who have been offended. We would like to see as many names as possible attached to this letter. If you support what we are doing and would be happy to have your name attached to the letter below, please leave a comment indicating your agreement. If you use Facebook under a pseudonym, please also give your real name. Of course, if News Corp fails to respond appropriately, we will be looking at all our options to seek redress. “Dear Rupert, Oz Kiwi is the peak independent body advocating for the rights of New Zealanders in Australia. On the 28th of December 2013, News Corp Australia published a number of variants of an article by Natasha Bita concerning New Zealanders in Australia. Oz Kiwi has received a considerable number of complaints from New Zealand-born and Pasifika-born who have expressed concerns that variants of this story have offended, insulted, and humiliated them based upon their national origin. As the publications in question do not appear to represent a fair and accurate report, we are concerned that they are racially inflammatory, in breach of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth). In particular, Oz Kiwi is concerned about the following published texts: 1. “JOBLESS Kiwis are flocking to Australia in search of work and demanding the dole” 2. “Kiwi layabouts are flooding in” 3. “TENS of thousands of South Pacific and Asian migrants are using New Zealand as a back door to duck Australia’s tough migration controls” 4. “That means one in every eight of the migrants gained New Zealand citizenship before switching to Australia, with 14,744 born in Asia, 10,592 born in Samoa, 5269 in the Cook Islands, 5842 in Africa, 2754 in Fiji and 2116 in the Middle East.” The story appears to be little more than a racist beat-up based upon deceptively presented and ill-interpreted statistics in order to fabricate a story during the slow Christmas period - in that: • Any article relating to the impact of the 2007-08 GFC on Australian-New Zealand migration is woefully out-of-date; • No evidence whatsoever was offered to substantiate that ‘flocks’ of Kiwi layabouts are currently descending upon Australia; • The allegation that large numbers of non-NZ-born are deliberately abusing the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement is similarly not substantiated by any fact mentioned in the article. • The article raises with implied importance that 1 in 8 NZ citizens in Australia are not born in New Zealand. However, more than 1 in 8 NZ citizens in NZ are not born there. Similarly, nearly 1in 7 Australian citizens are not born in Australia. There appears to be little merit in raising such an otherwise meaningless statistic unless it is to incite emotion based upon national origin. • Many Pasifika acquire NZ nationality by birth. To imply they are using their birthright to ‘rort’ Australian immigration is offensive. • The article specifically racially targets NZ citizens of Asian, Pasifika, African, and Middle Eastern descent but raises no ‘concerns’ about those of European origins. In light of the above, Oz Kiwi asks News Limited to print an appropriate retraction and apology given the widespread offence caused by this article.” Please share this post with all of your friends. We want this to been seen as widely as possible so we can gain more support. - Tim
Posted on: Sun, 29 Dec 2013 07:14:57 +0000
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