Sydney shows one face to tourists, another to the Kiwi migrant

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 15

Sydney shows one face to tourists, another to the Kiwi migrant

KEN COATES

completes his series on the New

Zealand connection in Sydney, with a look at job prospects — and the lack of them.

Discrimination against newly-arrived young Kiwi job-seekers on one hand, and New Zealanders (many of them Maorisi who have done well in Australia, on the other - these are two sides of the picture of Kiwi migration across the Tasman. The migration began years ago. but some recent arrivals have fared badly. Bill Napier, aged 21. from the Bay of Islands, and his mate. Gary McMahon, aged 22. from the Bay of Plenty, arrived in Sydney in October last, with S4OOO between them. They arrived full of hope. Both had good jobs in New Zealand with the Tourist Hotel Corporation. It was mainly the optimistic picture painted by visiting Australian tourists, of higher wages and promotion for two likely lads, that prompted them to cross the Tasman. Besides. Gary had been to Sydney before, two years ago. and knew the ropes. Their first shock was Sydney. They soon found there were no jobs. One employer told them flatly he did not hire "Kiwis or Poms." and anyway, they were not even Australian citizens. On the advice of the Commonwealth Employment Service. they headed north; better to front up. show their willingness to work, they were told. Their impressive references showed that Bill had run a staff training scheme for waiters and had organised large receptions; Gary was experienced in restaurants and hotels. It was a dispiriting two months. They slept on the train, living as cheaply as possible as they eked out their money and traipsed around all the big hotels and restaurants — even fast food outlets eventually — in towns all the way north to Townsville. Everywhere they went, it ; was the same story; "Sorry : mate, no jobs." A Queensland caravan park owner, who happened to be a Kiwi, took pity on the pair and hired them to paint a fence. But that was only two days' work. In Brisbane, they had trouble renting a $6 a night room. "You Kiwis?" asked

the proprietor. "Forget it." And the place looked little more than a doss house.

They did manage to get a few interviews for hotel jobs. But just when they thought they were getting’ on well, they would be asked where they came from. When they said New Zealand. the employer would suddenly lose interest, and tell them he would telephone, if he wanted them. He never did.

The pair gave up and returned to Sydney with little funds. They tried hawking paintings which they had to say they had painted, and were told to keep anything over $4O a day. No-one bought. Gary borrowed $7OO from a brother in New Zealand to keep afloat.

"We stayed in a youth hostel in King's Cross, but with no dole money and no work, we soon got down to our last $2." they said. They admit they even toyed with the alternatives they had seen in the Cross — selling drugs and turning to petty crime. They wished they had never decided to go to Australia and were in poor health through not eating properly. Then a New Zealand girl they knew told them about Tess Lim. of Metta. She took the pair into her home where at least they had food and shelter. The boys think they will swallow their pride and ask their families to lend them the fare home, where they know they can get work. Many young New Zealanders naturally find it difficult to admit failure to parents. Life in Sydney is also

tough for 20-year-old Warwick Howie, of Auckland, who has been there for more than three years. He had a factory job which earned him $260 in the hand, but was laid off with the recession under a "last on first off" policy. "I have tried for jobs, but they want Aussies and not New Zealanders." he says. W’arwick is luckier than many Kiwis though — because he qualifies as a permanent resident, he can draw the dole of $l2B a fortnight. "There is a concern about the number of New Zealanders holding down jobs here." confirms the executive director of the Employers' Federation of New South Wales. Mr Allen Jones. "But

it is an emotional response. In Queensland, they are discriminating against southerners." Mr Jones refers to "a very strong feeling" about Kiwi's in the workforce, whether they are “slush" workers or chartered accountants, in view of what is a desperate labour position in Australia. There is also a suspicion that New Zealanders out of work should be sustained from New Zealand rather than from the Australian taxpayer's pocket, he says. While he would not confirm outright discrimination over jobs, Mr Jones said opposition was being expressed against migrants. New Zealanders and married women, in that order. A spokesman for Wool-

worths said there were no positions for New Zealanders. If there were, the company would not give Kiwis on a touring holiday permanent jobs. Applicant's for temporary jobs were treated on their merits, irrespective of where they came from. Life is different for New’ Zealanders well established in Sydney.

A group of Maori New Zealanders in native dress sang a familiar lilting welcome on the lawn outside St John's Anglican Church, one of the oldest in Sydney, in the warm sunshine of Saturday morning.

There was even a traditional Maori challenge. Welldressed guests and elders looked on. The Bishop of Sydney, the Rt Rev. Donald Robinson, and the new New Zealand Consul General. Mr Alistair Bisley. fresh from Brussels, moved into the historic church.

It was a service organised by the Anglican Maori Fellowship, one of several Maori organisations in Sydney. The purpose was to dedicate the new Taki Toa (many challenges) rugby shield for competition among 12 Maori teams from all over Australia. “This occasion marks the growing number of Maori people making their permanent homes in Australia, and follows early visits by Maori chiefs to Samuel Marsden who befriended them," said the bishop. Tall, distinguished, Mr Henare Sutherland, a retired teacher, who carved the ornate shield, said many Maori New Zealanders had been very successful in the more open society of Australia.

Australians were more likely to treat a man on his worth as a person, on whether he was a good bloke or not.

He sees need for a Maori centre in Sydney. "We have one of the most visible cultures in the world: we need a home to meet social needs." he says.

Bill Ngawaka. married to an Australian, with four sons, has lived in Australia since 1964. For years he worked on the Sydney waterfront, and now drives one of the city’s big Mercedes buses.

Bill, descended from Maori chiefs in the north of the North Island, is a thoughtful man.

He says New Zealand should . consider carefully why Sydney is looked on as an "alternative to Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch. “Australia is terrific though.” he enthuses. "It has a lot to offer; it is bigger, wider, with more opportuni-

ties for a man to improve himself.

"On a lot of big construction projects, they won t take anyone else but Maoris. And in West Australia, the Maoris are the only drivers who last on the big trucks." Bill thinks the New Zealand Government should give accurate information about the present job situation. A Maori Affairs and welfare officer to meet people's needs should also be considered.

If present trends continue. Australia's immigration laws could be tightened, and questions such as rights to citizenship and dual passports should be decided. As is customary after formalities, the shield dedication service was followed by a Maori and Island gathering and feast at the home of Mr Pat Armstrong and his Cook Islands wife. Pat came to Sydney in 1969 from Onehunga. Though times are tough for. his rugmanufacturing business, he considers coming to Australia was a good move. He could not have achieved the same success in New Zealand where it was "a closed shop."

He owns his own home in Bankstown and is still keeping his factory going in spite of having to put off most of his 32 staff. As he puts it: "I'm just managing to keep my head above water though the pool is getting dirtier all the time."

Ashley Down is a quietlyspoken New Zealander, now retired, who has made Australia his home after running a successful laundry business in Sydney.

Then there is Chuck Grace and his wife. Susan, and their children, aged 13. 12 and eight. They look on their 11 years in Sydney with their ups and downs with mixed feelings.

Chuck knows Bondi like the back of his hand, and knows a great many New Zealanders.

His first job was digging graves; then he worked for a Scandinavian construction firm that would not hire Aussie labour because the boss thought they were too lazy.

Now he owns two trucks and sub-contracts to a nation-wide transport firm. His ambition is to sell the trucks to .buy a bulldozer. The idea is then to go into partnership with a friend in Queensland who will operate the bulldozer. Chuck reckons there is scope for him and the family to make a new life further north where he will set up as a fence-builder in new holiday developments. Susan works night shift at

a cigarette factory in Sydney where six job vacancies attracted more than 300 applicants the other day.

Typically, the two are providing a temporary home in their flat for two recentlyarrived New Zealand girls, one a relative, who are looking for work. While the Graces are optimistic about their future and possess a good supply of this world's material goods, they express a concern about drugs and crime, and the possible effects on their growing children of living in Bondi. Chuck tells of a New Zealander dying of a drug overdose. friendless, with only a labourers' union organiser to arrange a funeral. The young man's girl-friend, who drove a Porsche, was known to be a pusher and disappeared immediately after his death. Once Chuck Grace was president of a rugby league club which had as its headquarters the Astra Hotel. Bondi. He says the club had to be disbanded because the hotel got such a bad name for drugs.

Susan says one day a car drove in beside their apartment. full of "druggies." She lives in fear of being burgled.

Families' from small New Zealand towns often experience difficulty with their children in Sydney, says Margaret Hume, a Bondi Youth and Community Services district officer.

"There is a time lag between New' Zealand and Bondi; here there are no close communities.'. and no extended families. Parents often let their children disappear for nights on end. only later to realise what their neighbours are like."

Of six children admitted to residential care last week, she said, three were New Zealanders. Attitudes to Kiwis, in Bondi at least, are reflected in the policy of Mr Roger Tonkin, who came to Australia from England, and who runs an electronic business at Bondi Junction. He had a TV rental business in Bondi for a time, but a third of his sets rented to Kiwis disappeared. "They were even flogging them across the Tasman." he says.

“Now, even if a respectable looking New Zealand family came into this shop and wanted to enter into a hire purchase agreement. I would have to say. sorry. "There is no way the finance companies will wear Kiwis, with their record around here." There are. of course, many New Zealanders whom this cap does not fit — holding down steady jobs, prominent in business' and the professions.

Mr Colin Walker, from Timaru and Christchurch, has not been out of a job since he arrived three years ago. Some Kiwis do not want to work, he says, but most do. He runs his own carrying business, likes the life and the climate. Paul Dexter, a Kiwi who has been in Sydney since 1968, has built up one of the largest employment agencies in the city, handling hundreds of jobs in the catering industry.

A few extra jobs were created by the one-day cricket, he says, but times are tough. With a pool of 200 people on his books, there are no openings for newcomers.

He says New Zealanders are the second most highlypaid employees after Germans.

In a tight employment position, he says it is important for Kiwis to behave

themselves. They should not lake scarce jobs — if they can get them - and then leave after only a short time in employment. This, gives New Zealanders a bad name. One man with'little patience for Kiwis out of work is Richard Peters. He knows the ropes because he lived at Bondi in the sixties, and remembers booze, fighting and bands. “The Maori mafia is still alive," says Richard. He

hands over his card which describes him as a member of the Maori mafia and adds: "wars started, brawls arranged and kings dethroned.” He says confidence is needed to" get jobs. "I don’t tell them I don't know how to do it — I'm bold and confident." Richard has little time for the work of the Metta social worker, Tess Lim: "They rob

her don't they'.’ What good is she doing?" Richard holds down two jobs and says when he returns to New Zealand he will take his big new car with him to sell for a lot of money. Maoris, he says, are shrewder operators than Australians.

New Zealanders bob up everywhere. In the reconstructed early Sydney area, the Rocks, near Sydney Harbour Bridge, is the Platypus Gallery, a souvenir shop run by Gary Vincent, aged 42, formerly of Napier. His wife. Joan, makes appealing miniature ceramics, modelled in the shape of Australian animals. He plans to extend his offerings by imports from Mexico anil South Africa. Many New Zealand visitors stay at a nice hotel, take sightseeing tours and a boat trip on the harbour, then say what a tremendous place Sydney is. "And so it is. but they see only one face of it." savs Gary.

“Everything is so expensive; and there are people living out of rubbish tins. It's a hassle to get anywhere, and it's the last place young people should come with no money and no job.” He acknowledges that the quality of life is better in New Zealand, but says Australia offers opportunity for making money.

Millions have been made in Sydney by people who have" set" up factories, but who have not bothered to invest in new machinery, he says. They prospered from the country’s booming growth, in spite of outdated methods.

Gary Vincent threw in his job as a travelling salesman, and hopes to make bis shop a success in an area much visited by both Australians and tourists. He articulates both the attractions and disadvantages which Australia offers to the New Zealander.

Feeling the pinch

Disappearing TV sets