Australian reforms most unfair

Our family of five are all special category visa holders. We have lived in Australia since 2001. Our oldest two children were aged 2 and 4 when they came. They were entirely educated in Australia. Only our youngest child who was born in Australia is eligible for Australian citizenship. My daughter is studying at the University of Melbourne planning to do a masters in architecture and engineering. This is her first year of some six years of study. We are already stretched in funding her university education by living interstate. If her right to a commonwealth supported place was abolished, the additional costs will be prohibitive — despite living in Australia since she was two years of age and has been entirely educated in Australia.

If these reforms are approved by the Australian Parliament, my son and daughter will be facing their futures at a significant disadvantage to their peers. I struggle to understand how such a policy could be considered fair and reasonable or is indeed productive in progressing both Australia’s and New Zealand’s interests.

This policy will succeed only in fermenting resentment and in curbing the opportunities for a significant number of young New Zealanders on both sides of the Tasman. I fail to understand why we as New Zealanders living in Australia, and those who travel from New Zealand to study, are being treated as rank outsiders in Australia. I would hope these plans receive strong opposition from the New Zealand Government.

Andrew Moss, Sydney.