RUTB, I copied this from another thread, (I hope 'Wiley' doesn't object). It says it all far better than I could.
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X-dash8thrasher, I’ll attempt to explain, in part at least, the Oz antipathy to nU zUlUndUrs, (your post of 6 Oct). (And please, dear readers, I’m not saying that what I’m saying is the GospUl truth, just thUt right or wrong, thUs Uz a widely hUld percUption Un Oz).
For many years, there has been an agreement between the West Island and the two main islands to the east that pensions and social services be reciprocal. Ie, an Ozmate can go to nU zUlUnd and pick up the Kiwi pension or unemployment benefits, and likewise, a nU zUlUndUr can go to Oz and do something similar. Now Australians being what they are, always ready to go off half-cocked, few take the time to investigate how many Ozmates have travelled to the land of the long white shroud to take advantage of the nU zUlUnd social services system. It’s quite possible there are hundreds of thousands. Possible, your average Ozmate will agree. but damned unlikely.
On the other hand… that self-same average Ozmate has, for the last twenty years or more, seen… shall we say a goodly number of nU zUlUndUrs taking advantage – some would say rorting – the Oz system. A widely held perception, (I admit, quite possibly inaccurate), is that it’s almost a national sport for Kiwis to come to Oz to have a baby and get the Oz taxpayer to foot the bill. Likewise to have an extended ‘(non)working holiday’ in Oz living on the Oz dole or sickness benefits.
To get away from the freeloaders, (and to what gets right up the collective noses of people in Aviation in Ozmate), a Kiwi can come to Oz and apply for a job with an Australian airline (and many, many have done so for many years now), and that Kiwi will be treated exactly the same as an Australian applying for the same job. (And being a Kiwi - as most Kiwis will tell you - and therefore smarter that your average ocker Ozmate, of course he’ll get it.)
On the other hand…, an Ozmate, unless he’s married to a Kiwi, has not been able to even get a look in the door at Air nU zUlUnd for as long as I’ve been in Aviation.
And on top of that, the mishandling of the Ansett debacle by that airline’s last owners (who was that?) was beyond belief in its ineptitude. They were obviously hoping some White Knight, (or a brown/yellow one) would come riding into the picture to bail them out if they just kept hanging in there blowing a mill+ a day a bit longer. On top of that, The Ozmate sense of fair play was outraged when those same owners walked away from what a first year law student could tell you were clearly their legal, to say nothing of their moral obligations to staff, expecting the Australian taxpayer to pick up the tab. Medical Benefits payments were taken from the salaries of Ansett staff after June but not paid into the Funds. Allegedly, (note that word), those same owners also gutted the airline its final months. Personally, I find that last allegation hard to swallow, for I find it hard to believe the Dirty Digger would have left them anything to gut when they mysteriously bought it from him in what can only be called ‘questionable’ circumstances.
It may be possible to prove that every point I’ve listed here is inaccurate in every detail. But I’ve written this attempting to answer X-dash8thrasher’s comment “…i am so at a loss comprehending the level of hatred towards new zealand people…” s It might be inaccurate, (and I think ‘hatred’ is probably a bit strong), but what I’ve written above IS the widely held perception of many people in Australia – and not just in Aviation.