Latest news with #VickyRose
1News
29-05-2025
- General
- 1News
Gold Coast charity offers down on their luck Kiwis a ticket home
Kiwis living on the Gold Coast who have fallen on hard times are being offered one-way tickets back to New Zealand. The Nerang Neighbourhood Centre is offering the repatriation flights as New Zealanders are ineligible for governmental support for general homelessness. Nerang Neighbourhood Centre general manager Vicky Rose told Morning Report for some people, a flight back to New Zealand was the only option. "Our job is to put all the options on the table and we wouldn't be doing our job properly if we didn't put going back to New Zealand on the table. "Often it's the only option for that person or family to be able to get financial support." Rose explained the offer was "entirely voluntary", and not everyone took it. For some it took a few conversations before people came to the conclusion heading back to New Zealand was the best option. "I always frame the conversation around, 'you haven't failed, in some ways the system has failed you.'" The funding for the flights comes from the Queensland state government, and Rose said the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre had collaborated with other organisations across the Gold Coast and Brisbane to help people get back to New Zealand. "It's emergency relief funding and it's for people in crisis when there's no other option." Rose explained the decision was a tough one, as Australia had become peoples' home, regardless of how long they had been living there. "We've helped dozens and dozens over the years, and there are two organisations affiliated to the Department of Immigration that also do this called Homeward and International Organisation for Migration. "It's an issue, and I think it's going to become more of an issue given that rents here are astronomical and affordable housing is almost out of reach of working people. We have working people living in their cars here." In 2023, a pathway to Australian citizenship was created, but Rose explained this wasn't an immediate or short-term fix as the process was costly and time consuming.
Otago Daily Times
28-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Aussie charity offers Kiwis one-way ticket home
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES Kiwis living on the Gold Coast who have fallen on hard times are being offered one-way tickets back to New Zealand. The Nerang Neighbourhood Centre is offering the repatriation flights as New Zealanders are ineligible for governmental support for general homelessness. Nerang Neighbourhood Centre general manager Vicky Rose told RNZ's Morning Report programme today that, for some people, a flight back to New Zealand was the only option. "Our job is to put all the options on the table and we wouldn't be doing our job properly if we didn't put going back to New Zealand on the table. "Often it's the only option for that person or family to be able to get financial support." Rose explained the offer was "entirely voluntary", and not everyone took it. For some it took a few conversations before people came to the conclusion heading back to New Zealand was the best option. "I always frame the conversation around, 'you haven't failed, in some ways the system has failed you.'" The funding for the flights comes from the Queensland state government, and Rose said the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre had collaborated with other organisations across the Gold Coast and Brisbane to help people get back to New Zealand. "It's emergency relief funding and it's for people in crisis when there's no other option." Rose explained the decision was a tough one, as Australia had become peoples' home, regardless of how long they had been living there. "We've helped dozens and dozens over the years, and there are two organisations affiliated to the Department of Immigration that also do this called Homeward and International Organisation for Migration. "It's an issue, and I think it's going to become more of an issue given that rents here are astronomical and affordable housing is almost out of reach of working people. We have working people living in their cars here." In 2023, a pathway to Australian citizenship was created, but Rose explained this wasn't an immediate or short-term fix as the process was costly and time-consuming.
Otago Daily Times
28-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Aussie charity offers down on their luck New Zealanders a ticket home
Kiwis living on the Gold Coast who have fallen on hard times are being offered one-way tickets back to New Zealand. The Nerang Neighbourhood Centre is offering the repatriation flights as New Zealanders are ineligible for governmental support for general homelessness. Nerang Neighbourhood Centre general manager Vicky Rose told Morning Report for some people, a flight back to New Zealand was the only option. "Our job is to put all the options on the table and we wouldn't be doing our job properly if we didn't put going back to New Zealand on the table. "Often it's the only option for that person or family to be able to get financial support." Rose explained the offer was "entirely voluntary", and not everyone took it. For some it took a few conversations before people came to the conclusion heading back to New Zealand was the best option. "I always frame the conversation around, 'you haven't failed, in some ways the system has failed you.'" The funding for the flights comes from the Queensland state government, and Rose said the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre had collaborated with other organisations across the Gold Coast and Brisbane to help people get back to New Zealand. "It's emergency relief funding and it's for people in crisis when there's no other option." Rose explained the decision was a tough one, as Australia had become peoples' home, regardless of how long they had been living there. "We've helped dozens and dozens over the years, and there are two organisations affiliated to the Department of Immigration that also do this called Homeward and International Organisation for Migration. "It's an issue, and I think it's going to become more of an issue given that rents here are astronomical and affordable housing is almost out of reach of working people. We have working people living in their cars here." In 2023, a pathway to Australian citizenship was created, but Rose explained this wasn't an immediate or short-term fix as the process was costly and time consuming.
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Gold Coast charity offers down on their luck Kiwis a ticket home
The funding for the flights comes from the Queensland state government. Photo: Kiwis living on the Gold Coast who have fallen on hard times are being offered one-way tickets back to New Zealand. The Nerang Neighbourhood Centre is offering the repatriation flights as New Zealanders are ineligible for governmental support for general homelessness. Nerang Neighbourhood Centre general manager Vicky Rose told Morning Report for some people, a flight back to New Zealand was the only option. "Our job is to put all the options on the table and we wouldn't be doing our job properly if we didn't put going back to New Zealand on the table. "Often it's the only option for that person or family to be able to get financial support." Rose explained the offer was "entirely voluntary", and not everyone took it. For some it took a few conversations before people came to the conclusion heading back to New Zealand was the best option. "I always frame the conversation around, 'you haven't failed, in some ways the system has failed you.'" The funding for the flights comes from the Queensland state government, and Rose said the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre had collaborated with other organisations across the Gold Coast and Brisbane to help people get back to New Zealand. "It's emergency relief funding and it's for people in crisis when there's no other option." Rose explained the decision was a tough one, as Australia had become peoples' home, regardless of how long they had been living there. "We've helped dozens and dozens over the years, and there are two organisations affiliated to the Department of Immigration that also do this called Homeward and International Organisation for Migration. "It's an issue, and I think it's going to become more of an issue given that rents here are astronomical and affordable housing is almost out of reach of working people. We have working people living in their cars here." In 2023, a pathway to Australian citizenship was created, but Rose explained this wasn't an immediate or short-term fix as the process was costly and time consuming. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Centre offers homeless Kiwis in Australia one-way flights home
New Zealand citizens who find themselves homeless in Australia are being offered one-way tickets home amid the nation's worsening housing crisis. A small community centre on the Gold Coast said it had helped hundreds of Kiwis with the last-resort flights over the past 15 years. Repatriation was often "the best and only option", according to Nerang Neighbourhood Centre general manager Vicky Rose. "We're talking about a really small pocket of our people here who, through a series of unfortunate events, have ended up where they are." Ms Rose said the centre had helped about a dozen New Zealanders to return home over the past year. She said it used its emergency relief funding — which was provided by the state government — to pay for the flights. "We're the only ones doing what we do — I get calls from all over Australia," Ms Rose said. The region, between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, is home to the largest proportion of New Zealand-born residents in the country, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows. Most New Zealand citizens live and work in Australia on a Special Category Visa (SCV). While the SCV gives access to a one-off JobSeeker payment for six months, it has limited access to many government supports including some Centrelink payments and social housing. A new citizenship process came into effect in 2023 — which would give access to full government support — but Ms Rose said it was often out of reach for the homeless. "It takes about 12 months to get granted citizenship and it is $580 and so somebody who's homeless, who doesn't have access to money or anything like that, isn't going to be able to come up with $580," she said. City of Gold Coast is one of three councils in south-east Queensland to recently adopt strategies where people sleeping rough on public land can be fined or have their belongings confiscated if they refused to leave within a given timeframe. Matangirau Hira, who took up refuge in a tent in Southport's CBD in April, is one of 30 people to have received move-on directions from the council in recent months. The 65-year-old has struggled with illness and unemployment. "First, it was an infection I got on my knee … and then, like a heart attack," Mr Hira said. The New Zealand citizen said he had nowhere else to go and could not access any financial assistance because of his visa status. "Most Kiwis have to work to get money," he said. A Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works spokesperson said critical response teams were on the ground "conducting outreach and offering services to those willing to speak with us". A New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said it was aware of the arrangements in place to support its citizens. "We are not familiar with the specific situation however, we are aware that the Australian federal government provides programs to support non-citizens to voluntarily depart Australia if their circumstances change, and that will make sense for some New Zealanders," the spokesperson said. But some New Zealand citizens said they could not go back. Arama Winiata-Marunui said he had been unemployed and sleeping rough since last September due to a back injury. "I haven't got the best family support back there … there's not much of a life that's for sure," he said. Ms Rose said the emotional weight of leaving Australia was also a barrier for some people. "But I just say to people, 'Go home, regroup, heal, gather yourself, touch down with your whānau [family] … and come back with some more to put on the table here'." She urged anyone considering moving to Australia to ensure they had a secure job, enough money, accommodation and understood their entitlements before making the move. "People need to know that the sun, sand and surf that they come for is a holiday destination," she said. "Living here is a completely different thing."
