Kiwi memories jogged

Press, 13 June 1984, Page 37

Kiwi memories jogged

By SHONA MARTYN, in Sydney The Leader of the Opposition. Mr Lange, has successfully jogged the memories of many Sydney-based New Zealanders about the forthcoming General Election. Since a “remember to enrol” letter from Mr Lange was printed in some Sydney newspapers several weeks ago, the New Zealand Con-sulate-General has received a “steady stream of inquiries.” "It's really left up to the political parties to advertise the election here,” said a spokesman. “The Government doesn’t budget for this purpose and it would be highly expensive to try and cover the field.”

More than 1500 New Zealanders living in New South Wales voted in the last New Zealand election which is only a small fraction of the more than 67,000 estimated to be in the area. But only those who have returned home in the last three years are eligible to vote — and many who have been away for some time are apparently unaware that a week's holiday back with mum and dad restores this eligibility. Obviously large numbers of New Zealanders don’t bother to vote in their home country's elections because they are apathetic or because they now identify with Australia, the country they pay taxes in.

If all eligible voters in New’ South Wales enrolled they could have a marked impact on New Zealand voting patterns. Mr Lange’s letter was presumably aimed at picking up any who left because they were disgruntled with the political scene. Voting in Australia will take place in the three weeks leading up to New Zealand polling day with voters able to complete their ballot papers by mail or at the Consulate-Gen-eral’s central Sydney office. “It’s a lot of work for us,” said the spokesman. “Staff have to write out the voting papers for each electorate by hand.”