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January 30, 2026 — 5:46am
More than 400 people a week are using an easing of migration rules for those across “the ditch” to apply for Australian citizenship, even though they weren’t born in New Zealand.
There has been a 462 per cent surge in applications since the Albanese government eased citizenship requirements in July 2023, allowing New Zealand residents who have lived here for four years or more to become Australian citizens without having to first become a permanent resident.
Department of Home Affairs data provided to this masthead reveals that 48 per cent of the 92,000 New Zealanders who took advantage of the relaxed requirements were born in third-party nations rather than New Zealand.
Those numbers, combined with a recent rise in New Zealanders moving to Australia, have raised doubts about Australia’s ability to meet a planned slowdown in migration, as well as concerns it is robbing New Zealand of both its professional and low-skilled workforce.
It has also prompted New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters to flag concerns his country is being used a stepping stone by migrants wanting to come to Australia, and that the trend will further accelerate under an easing of its own migration rules which will grant residency in just 18 months for some workers.
“We are concerned that those who gain residency will become citizens then, using their New Zealand passports, leave for fast-tracked visas in Australia. Almost half of our citizens already applying for Australian citizenship last year were not born here,” Peters said in a statement.
“New Zealand is being used as a stepping stone into Australia. We take them in, train them, up-skill them, look after their families, and then they emigrate. How is this an effective immigration policy?”
As previously revealed by this masthead, there has also been a significant increase in the numbers of overseas workers using mutual recognition agreements with New Zealand as a back door to avoid Australian regulators and gain a shortcut to employment.
Despite confirming that almost half of those granted citizenship under the revised New Zealand rules originate from third-party countries, Australia’s Department of Home Affairs does not request information about the country of birth from the applicants.
Instead, the department considers that the requirements of the Special Category Visa that grants automatic, indefinite stays for any New Zealand passport holder is proof enough that the applicants are neither a behaviour nor health concern.
Under its own “presence requirement”, New Zealand demands new migrants reside in the country for five years before they are eligible for citizenship.
Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration under the Howard government, said the thorough process required to first become a New Zealand citizen meant those moving onto Australia typically made a strong contribution, supporting the current visa settings.
“As a general rule, New Zealand citizens, whether they’re born in New Zealand or elsewhere, do very well in the Australian labour market. In that sense, they’re not a negative to the Australian labour market – they’re not coming here to try to access welfare,” Rizvi said.
However, Rizvi said the increase in citizenship and migration via New Zealand was at odds with Australia’s wider migration settings and could undermine the Albanese government’s policy position.
The latest data from the Australian government’s Centre for Population forecasts a net migration of 35,000 New Zealanders in 2025-26, the highest intake in more than a decade.
At the same time, the Albanese government is trying to slow migration, with Treasury data released this month forecasting a drop to 260,000 in net migration this year, and a further drop to 225,000 in 2026-27.
“If the objective of the government, and presumably the opposition, is to reduce the level of net migration, what’s happening with New Zealand citizens is pushing against that policy,” Rizvi said.
“The change makes it much, much harder for the government to deliver the forecasts it has made.”
Home Affairs data shows that of the 92,000 New Zealand Special Category Visa holders who applied for Australian citizenship by conferral from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025:
- About 48 per cent were born outside of New Zealand;
- More than 47,000 had passed the Australian citizenship test;
- More than 65,000 citizenship applications had been approved;
- More than 57,000 had acquired Australian citizenship (including minors and others not required to sit the test); and
- More than 6900 had an approved application and were waiting to attend a citizenship ceremony.
The expected surge followed a move to ease Australian citizenship requirements to New Zealanders that was announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in April 2023, reversing a 2001 clampdown by the Howard government over concerns New Zealand was being used for “back-door” migration by those wanting to come to Australia for higher wages and welfare programs.
“We know that many New Zealanders are here on a Special Category Visa while raising families, working and building their lives in Australia. So I am proud to offer the benefits that citizenship provides,” Albanese said.
Sociologist Paul Spoonley, from New Zealand’s Massey University, said a downturn in New Zealand’s labour market was driving its citizens offshore, with six out of 10 favouring Australia and professionals lured in by aggressive marketing from Australian employers.
“What Australia is getting are those who have migrated to New Zealand, having got educational qualifications and experience in New Zealand, and who are now making an essentially economic decision to maximise their returns,” he said.
“But there are another group for whom the centre of gravity is also in Australia and those are groups from the Pacific. These Pasifika migrants tend not to be as highly qualified as some but many of their community and family now live in Australia in a range of sectors and in relation to skill levels.
“They are both maximising their labour market opportunities, given that they have been particularly impacted by the economic downturn in New Zealand, and their community/family links.”
A Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, released on December 18, showed net overseas migration declining.
They said that in the 2024-25 financial year, net overseas migration was 306,000, a 29 per cent or 124,000-person reduction on the previous year.
“The government’s implementation of various migration measures has ensured migration delivers for the nation and helps return net overseas migration to near pre-pandemic levels,” the spokesperson said.
These measures include lifting requirements for international students, preventing visitor and temporary graduate visa holders from applying for student visas onshore and closing pandemic-era concessions.
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