



“We’ve formed on behalf of the 200,000 voiceless New Zealanders [living in Australia] who are currently ineligible to vote in New Zealand,” party spokesman Nick Teulon said.

New Zealand law bans citizens who have been overseas for more than three years from voting in the country’s general elections – some 20% of the population according to the party.



The Expats’ first move will be to lobby for that ban to be overturned.

The voting ban, in place since 1956, has been made archaic by advances in technology and social media, Teulon said.

“Around 83% of Kiwis living overseas keep up with New Zealand news and current affairs. A lot of [expats] own land in New Zealand, go back on holidays regularly, have strong ties to the country,” he said.

“This is about taking an interest in your homeland.”

New Zealand’s national statistics office, says it is hard to measure the number of expatriates, but in May 2012 the government announced that outflows to Australia had reached a new high: 53,500 annually.

Some 2.2 million people voted at the last New Zealand election in 2011, which brought the conservative John Key to power.

The new party plans to run in this year’s general election, on a platform of increasing the rights of New Zealanders overseas. Kiwis who arrived in Australia after February 2001 cannot receive social security benefits if they are unemployed or fall ill.

“We are not advocating the dole,” Teulon said. “New Zealanders in Australia are however deeply concerned that successive New Zealand governments have failed to actively and effectively advocate overseas for core residency, health and education rights and they expect the New Zealand government to do so.”

He cited Australia’s national disability insurance scheme as an example – New Zealanders living in Australia will be liable for the levy to fund it, but do not qualify for its benefits.

Teulon says the party has established a delegation in London, and is identifying prominent Kiwis overseas to tap for leadership positions.