Should Māori born overseas automatically be NZ citizens? Father fights for children classed as illegal overstayers
Photo:
John Bryers Ruddock / Supplied
The descendant of a Treaty signatory, All Black and " the voice of New Zealand" is fighting for Māori to have automatic New Zealand citizenship.
John Bryers Ruddock (Ngāpuhi), recently returned to Aotearoa to live with his three children - ages 8, 9 and 10. But, he was born in Australia and all three of his children were born in Hawaii.
As a result, he was now navigating an expensive process to get his tamariki recognised as New Zealand citizens.
Despite their whakapapa including a number of famous New Zealanders - their great grandfather was All Black Ron Bryers, their grandmother was celebrated singer Rhonda Bryers, known as "the voice of New Zealand" and their great great grandfather was an original signatory to Te Tiriti, the children were technically overstayers and unable to attend school.
Bryers Ruddock told
Checkpoint
, he had asked for a Waitangi Tribunal hearing to discuss the issue and wanted to see some kind of intervention.
He said having his children being labelled as overstayers was not something as a father he wanted to put them through.
"It's red tape after red tape," he said. "It's been a costly process so far, I have to finalise the court orders, so still dealing with that, I've spent over $17,000 so far."
Bryers Ruddock said he wanted the tribunal to look at his case and change the policy around citizenship for people of Māori descent who were born overseas.
"I just feel, you know, my mum was an ambassador for this country and culture... it's something I want to do for our people."
Bryers Ruddock said he had sent in an application for the children to get citizenship under Section 61 of the Immigration Act, which allowed Immigration NZ to issue visas in special circumstances, and was waiting for a sponsor to help him get either a student visa or residency.
The treaty claim had been lodged by Hastings law firm Manaia Legal, he said.
John Bryers Raddock and his three children recently moved to Wellington.
Photo:
John Bryers Ruddock / Supplied
Minister of Internal Affairs, Brooke van Velden, said in a statement provided to
Checkpoint,
she was not looking to change the citizen act and said the requirements of citizenship applied to all applicants equally.
"The outcomes depend on the information provided for each case not the ethnicity of the applicant."
The minister had the discretion to grant citizenship to people who didn't meet requirements bur had exceptional circumstances.
Van Velden's office said it had not yet received an application about Bryers Ruddock's children and they needed to go through the application process with internal affairs first.
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