Continuing in our series of “What Kiwis Say About NZ.”

The following story was written by a New Zealander who was born and raised in Auckland. It first appeared on the immigration support and advice forum Expatexposed.com in 2008. The author describes how the rot set-in and why they have decided to leave New Zealand.

If you’re thinking about emigrating to New Zealand because you don’t like the direction your own country has taken you may find it a revelation to discover that some New Zealanders think exactly the same about their own.

I was born in Auckland, New Zealand and as a child growing up in the early 1970’s (I’m 39 now)I remember New Zealand as being a truly wonderful place. I received a very good education at a local Primary School where I learned to read and write and perform mathematical functions.

Women from the local church used to visit us every Friday morning and read us bible stories with the aid of a blue felt board on which they placed pictures of biblical figures to illustrate their stories. We learned about right and wrong from those wonderful women but they never placed any pressure on us or our parents to attend any church or other religious organisation.

I was seldom naughty but on the two occasions that I actually behaved inappropriately I received a smack on my backside from the Headmaster. I never misbehaved again. The Police used to visit us and give talks. We children were in awe of them. Their words carried weight and again the divide between right and wrong was clearly drawn in the proverbial sand – in a nice, un-scary way that children could understand of course.

There was never any serious trouble in the playground. Maori, Indian, Chinese and European children played harmoniously together (there weren’t many Indian or Chinese children at School in 1973 but there were a few), nobody was excluded, everybody was treated the same regardless of race. There were equally as many male teachers as there were female and a male teacher’s hand on the upper back or shoulder to guide and direct wandering, errant children (myself included) did not instantly mean that the said male teacher was a child molesting monster who should be locked away forever.What has all this got to do with leaving New Zealand? It has everything to do with my impending departure. The education system is a good indicator as to how rotten and insane New Zealand has become. Having worked as a volunteer instructor in the NZ Cadet Forces, I have seen first-hand the products of the aforementioned education system. There are very bright 15- 16 year olds whose writing and English is extremely poor – their spelling is shocking. Their general knowledge is appalling and social skills are non existent. The three subjects they seem most knowledgeable in however is ‘cultural sensitivity’, art and anti-Americanism.

The rot has a trickle down effect. I call it the ‘Sweet As’ syndrome because that seems to be the attitude of most New Zealanders. You are being swindled by the Petrol companies…sweet as, your government are forcing their loopy, socialist policies upon you…sweet as, the Police aren’t interested in anything unless it’s a ‘cultural issue’, sweet as, child abuse and death is over represented by a certain portion of the community but nothing gets done about it, sweet as…..

Ok not every Kiwi is afflicted by the ‘Sweet As’ syndrome but a lot of them have this laid back, and apathetic attitude. I’ve met doctors, vets, employers and police with this mindset. When important ‘pillars of the community’ such as doctors and police display symptoms of the ‘sweet as’ syndrome, you know the rot has well and truly set in.

Let me get to the specifics as to why I’m leaving:

1)Government: Arrogant, agenda-ridden control freaks who have hoisted insane policies upon the populace. think Anti-smacking (has it worked?), NCEA, Electoral finance bill, Civil unions, prostitution reform, failed fart tax, banning of older car imports (older meaning late 1990’s), endless taxation (petrol, food, vehicle registrations, impending ‘carbon’ taxes), acceleration of the depletion and ineffectiveness of our armed forces, constant snubbing and rudeness towards our Head of State….need I continue? They don’t listen to the people. They fast track major legislation without the bat of an eyelid and they think Kiwi voters are fickle and dumb (which is largely true). We even have a pot smoking, skateboarding member of parliament who contributes to some of the whacky and Alice-in-Wonderland policies we now live under. Only in laid back new Zealand.. The bottom line is that they don’t listen. Their arrogance is stunning and their answer to everything is to put a tax on it. Obesity – tax all snack foods, traffic jams – tax roads and petrol, people killing themselves on roads – increase ACC levy, Natural, cyclic climate change – create a carbon tax and increase electricity prices, increase petrol tax…you see how it works….

2)Maori Issues: Let me make it clear that a vast majority of Maori people are ordinary, hard working people who don’t have a blame mentality. They are just as frustrated about the direction this country is taking as any informed person on the street.

As someone with European descent, I am sick to death of being blamed for the perceived issues of Maori. In fact are Maori any worse of than the average person? In many cases they are better off. I studied photography at a tertiary institute where Maori did not have to pay course fees (the rest of us did and we are still paying off the student loans 5 years later). Universities have Maori and Pacific Islander only scholarships. These are race based policies and are not based on merit. The Police clearly tread carefully when dealing with Maori. At a recent ‘protest’ in Auckland due to the so called and recent terror raids, radical Maori were brandishing spears and intimidated police by spitting on patrol cars and yelling offensive remarks. Spears are offensive weapons and these ‘protesters’ were actually waving them about at police. No arrest were made. If I or any other non-Maori had done the same there is no doubt in my mind what would of happened.

In a recent NZ Herald article, a professor of Maori studies at a university who shall remain nameless stated that Maori did not hit their children before Europeans came. In other words the big bad European is responsible for poor defenceless children being battered and hung on clotheslines and used for ‘wrestling’ practice. The thugs who commit these atrocities are not responsible for their actions if you believe these misguided ‘academics’ and loopy radical Maori politicians. These radical politicians think that all non Maori people are well-off and are privileged. This is nonsense. I went to School without lunch or breakfast more often than not and at one stage I was sent to High School with girl’s shoes and pants simply because that’s all the Opportunity shop my mother went to had in my size. I was victimised and bullied at school because of this. I was seriously assaulted, called names, spat on…..by Maori and Pacific Island students. I don’t however, hold grudges. I also live in a leaky home (The Real Estate Agent who administers the property refuses to acknowledge that a wall in the lounge is left soaking wet after rain). The aforementioned Maori politicians claim that ‘Pakeha’ moan about living in a leaky home when for many Maori ‘Up North’ this is common problem. It’s not solely a Maori issue…

The PC brigade (mainly consisting of loopy Europeans)have also turned the Maori culture into something that cannot be questioned/debated or even smiled at (Just ask the poor tourist who was hit with a spear after he was seen to smile during a Maori performance in Rotorua). Anyone coming to NZ for the first time would think that there is only one culture here. Maori culture is rammed down everybody’s throat and overrides any other heritage. Where’s the balance? The Haka is also overused. Any School/Sport group that travel overseas always seem to perform a Haka at any given opportunity. The perception is because it’s Maori absolutely everyone will enjoy it and watch out if you don’t! (I don’t like English Morris dancing either but at least you won’t get attacked by a ribbon stick if you smile at it). There are two laws in New Zealand – If you are non Maori, try removing a deceased person’s body without the relative’s permission or spitting on police cars whilst brandishing spears or even discharging a firearm at the country’s flag in a public place and see how far you get……Lastly it was interesting to note that a recent survey of frustrated Maori people living in Australia claimed that a vast majority of them were in Australia to escape the ‘pressures and ties of the Maori culture in NZ’. This wasn’t the only reason for them moving to Australia (i.e. better standard of living, higher wages, effective Police Force etc)but it definitely was a contributing factor. Most of the Maori myth of being underprivileged and downtrodden was in fact created by liberal, socialist Europeans!

3 )Political Correctness: Auckland Hospital has changed the signs on it’s waiting rooms from…… well waiting room to ‘Whanau Room’. A large Auckland Tertiary Institute has removed the signs ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ from the doors of their toilets and relaced them with ‘Tane’ and ‘Hine’. Training establishments and Government departments now have to produce a ‘mission statement’ including an undertaking to honour the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Scholarships are now being offered at universities based purely upon race and not merit. Cadets training and drilling with thin wooden cut-outs in the shape of firearms, some cadet instructors avoiding the use of red marker pens on whiteboards during lectures because in some cultures the colour red is considered evil (YES I was advised by an Army Cadet instructor not to use a red marker pen because of this very reason), some work places asking staff to avoid eating in the staff lunchroom during Ramadan in case Muslim staff are offended -they have to eat out of sight, Jewish graves are desecrated with anti semantic graffiti, a Christian grave yard is vandalised and yet nothing much is said nor are culprits apprehended- A mosque in Mount Roskill has it’s walls daubed in paint with unsavoury comments about Islam and the police respond decisively and in numbers. A culprit is caught. Staff in Auckland Public libraries dressing up in traditional Indian clothing, for Diwali and promoting all material on Indian subjects but keeping Christmas and Easter low key affairs, male passengers not allowed to sit next to non-related children on Air NZ flights (Because all males are potential child molesters you see), Male teachers/Cadet instructors/scouting staff having a supervisor present if they are questioning or talking to a child alone in a room…..these are REAL examples of political correctness happening in New Zealand RIGHT NOW. As a single male, I feel particularly undermined and ‘under the microscope’. This is only the beginning however as there is a lot more social engineering to come. The Government are very sneaky. They introduce their agenda bit by bit – 20 years ago the thought of two men marrying each other would have been unthinkable to the average Kiwi but now it’s happened and you’ve had time to get used to it….time to introduce the next step – whatever that step might be. I shudder to think.3)Driving: It is unsafe to drive in New Zealand. Kiwi drivers are, on the whole, arrogant, unskilled, impatient, discourteous and they take the most appalling risks. Indicators are gimmicky things that don’t need to be used and kiwis can kill themselves easily on a straight piece of road.The Kiwi attitude to driving is that it is a big race and you simply have to be at the front of the line of traffic no matter what the consequences. Anyone in front of you is fair game and deserves to be tailgated, abused and harassed. Forget speed limits as they don’t apply – speed signs are purely for decoration. If it’s raining there is no need to adjust your driving – tailgating at 130kph on a wet motorway is absolutely fine. The thought of driving here makes me shiver….

4)Infill Housing: Kiwis used to pride themselves on the much vaunted quarter or half acre section. It’s now part of the Kiwi psyche/obsession to sub divide at every possible opportunity and plonk a house on that fast-disappearing section. I live in a suburban area of Auckland that is fast becoming the fill-in housing capital of the country. Kiwis moan constantly about going to London where ‘everybody lives on top of everyone else’ but what do they think in-fill housing is?

Kiwis also hate privacy. They like to see into each other’s gardens (what’s left of them)and seem to like everything open-plan and visible. I could watch my next door neighbour’s TV if I wanted to as they live in an in-fill house that is crammed right up against our fence. They are so close I can hear their toilet flush. Their huge LCD TV reminds me of an American drive-in theatre. BTW our neighbours obviously didn’t like one of the trees in our garden. Upon arriving home after grocery shopping one day we found them chopping it down with a chainsaw. No permission was sought, no note in the letterbox, no friendly knock at the door, they just came over and chopped it down….that’s OK this is New Zealand and everything is ‘Sweet As Bro’…..

5)Public Transport: The Government and LTSA are trying to encourage people to leave their cars at home and use public transport. What public transport? It is a joke. What little public transport there is is expensive and unreliable. I live in one of the suburbs on the border of Auckland city (a 15 Minute drive by car from where I live to the city centre). When I worked in the city it cost me $25 per week in petrol to drive there and back 5 days per week. On the bus it cost me $46 per week (and that’s WITH a concession fare)and the journey took 45-50 minutes. The bus drivers were mostly rude and unhelpful and on one occasion a female passenger sitting opposite me was flung literally onto my lap as the speeding driver went around a corner. He didn’t even check to see if she was OK and when she told him that he should be more careful he responded by telling her to “hold on tighter next time”. I was appalled…

With the expense and driver’s attitudes (not to mention their speeding mentality), who would want to catch a bus. You need a car in Auckland as it is so spread out and sprawling although with spiralling petrol prices it’s going to get harder and harder to run a car (especially when the bullshit carbon tax comes into force). Forget the train completely. Shambles is a relatively mild word when describing the NZ rail system. Laughable is more apt although I don’t see many people laughing at Auckland’s main station Britomart when a train fails to appear or is 45 minutes late.

The place I lived in Britain (Halifax) had an excellent public transport system with affordable double decker buses and trains that came every 20 minutes…I left my car at home and used it for weekend excursions/adventures to France………Magic!

6) General Apathy: I am a Kiwi and even I am struck by the overly laid back attitude of NZ’s inhabitants. I’ve already described this as the ‘Sweet As’ syndrome. The term ‘Sweet As’ used to be funny when Asian students who paid big money to come to NZ to study in their droves said it on ‘feel good’ light weight ‘current affairs’ programmes such as Holmes. Of course after being fleeced by unscrupulous home stay providers, living in sub standard accommodation and suffering the loss of their tuition fees due to collapses of the institutions they studied with, NZ doesn’t have those numbers of overseas students coming here anymore. Their cheerful antics on Holmes are but a distant memory. The ‘Sweet As’ attitude lives on however and it’s not funny anymore.

We have a dog who has a particular skin problem. Do you think there would be a vet in Auckland who could treat him? Apparently not. The response we get is “Oh it must be an allergy”. He’s been given different medication, special food but nothing works. Are the vets interested in finding out what the problem is? No it seems our dog’s complaint , which apparently is quite common, is something which our vets here in Auckland can’t be bothered investigating. They won’t even take a simple skin swab. They must be thinking about lying cramped on the beach all day getting skin cancer with 10,000 other people. Sweet As bro!!!

One evening an unhinged and very disturbed person came calling and threatened to slit my throat – after asking him to leave he tried to attack me and then proceeded to smash a window before promising to get his ‘Gang mates’ to come back later that evening to finish me off. He drove off in a distinctive car which I managed to get a description of. I dialled 111 (Yay I actually got through to someone)and reported the incident. I mentioned that there had been threats to kill and a smashed window. I was actually in fear of my life as this person was obviously disturbed. I was told that a police patrol would attend. An hour later and no police. I then got a call saying that there should be a police patrol attending by 10pm – maybe….

Two days later the police showed up. I had written everything down for them including the description of the car this person had driven off in. The police seemed pretty casual and I wasn’t surprised when they declined my invitation to see the smashed window. They didn’t even want a description of the car. They gave me a trespass notice to serve on the idiot (fat lot of use that is)and told me to call them if he showed up again.. All very casual and their visit lasted maybe 4-5 minutes. The incident occurred on a Tuesday evening – hardly a time when you’d think the police would be snowed under. Sweet As, we’ll be there when we can….

I applied for a job that was advertised in the paper on Tuesday. My first call was met with the usual “Oh so and so is busy right now can I take your number and she’ll call you right back” Three hours later I called again after so and so failed to call me. “She’s with somebody at the moment can I take your number and she’ll call you right back”.

It’s now the following day and so and so still hasn’t returned my call – funny that because the advert said they need someone urgently and who could start right away. I call again..”So and so’s busy at the moment can I take your number and she’ll give you a call right back” At this point I mentioned that I would not like to leave my number as ‘so and so’ has not called me back. I also pointed out that I had been calling for two days and if this is how they ran their business I wouldn’t want to work for them anyway. Normally you’d expect an apology or an explanation but nope, not in Kiwiland. I received an “Oh Ok…..thanks, byeee”. They are still advertising.

I have come up against this nonsense before when applying for jobs – I cringe when employers bleat about advertising jobs and not being able to find applicants…OK not all businesses are like this but it has happened to me on several occasions…..Sweet As.

7) Call Centre Staff: The past few months I have been in contact with several large companies for various reasons. I have not spoken to one call centre staff member whose first language is English. Normally I am very good with accents and have no trouble in communicating with people from other countries. I have found it so hard to communicate with these particular people in the particular companies I have dealt with (One was a Government Department). The problem is also one of comprehension. There have been several misunderstandings that have resulted in wrong information being recorded. These have required lengthy calls back to the companies concerned to try and sort out the mess. WHY can’t I speak to someone who understands what I’m saying? For example if I said Nissan Pulsar to someone how can it be translated as Volkswagen? (Yes that’s a real example). If I say anything about it I’m branded a racist…how does that work? Well I’m fed up and I’m saying something about it now. LET ME SPEAK TO SOMEONE WHO HAS A GOOD GRASP OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE – I LEARNED TO SPEAK ENGLISH AT SCHOOL AND IT’S THE ONLY LANGUAGE I KNOW.

8)Anti British Sentiment: On the whole Kiwis don’t like the Brits. I have read a lot about Asian people being harassed by Kiwis but by God, Kiwi’s dislike the British more. There is something deep in the Kiwi psyche that causes them to make adverse comments whenever the subject of particularly England or the English are mentioned.

During the floods last year in Britain I heard people calling a talkback station here in Auckland indicating that they would be happy if Britain sank beneath the waves. One gentleman said that he was sick of hearing about the floods and couldn’t care less if the ‘Poms’ were flooded back to the stone age. I was harassed at school for being a ‘Pom’ (even though I wasn’t born in the UK)and during the recent rugby world cup so called professional broadcasters were complaining bitterly about England being in the final. One female announcer claimed that it was a tragedy that England got anywhere near the final and you can imagine the torrent of ‘Pom bashing’ after the beloved All Blacks lost to France in the semi finals – The ref was English.

I have worked in the automotive industry where mechanics have tried anything to avoid working on late model British cars simply because they were ‘Pommy **** heaps’ and where the service receptionist gleefully told me about the time her husband owned a vehicle repair business and refused to hire qualified Pommy mechanics because they all moaned and were inferior to Kiwi mechanics.

The whole on-going debate about the NZ flag is simply due to the fact the British union flag is present. Even our glorious PM has said that she felt the Union flag could be removed just leaving the 4 stars. It’s all about removing any last ties with the nasty British. Britain is a huge part of this country’s heritage and it annoys me that certain elements of society want it erased. I know that NZ suffered terribly in both world wars and that a lot of people here in NZ blame the British for it. All nations made mistakes and paid the terrible consequences.In complete contrast, when in Britain I only heard praise for NZ. When people found out I was from NZ I was the centre of attention. There is a genuine affection for New Zealand in Britain but it isn’t mirrored here. We Kiwis can be such a bitter, moaning lot……

9) Low Wages: I’m sick of slogging away at $13.50 per hour job only to have one third of my weekly wages gobbled up by tax. I then go to a supermarket and pay even more tax via GST. You can’t live in Auckland on $13.50 an hour. I’m living to work.

10) Crime: So called Boy-Racers burn up the streets without fear of prosecution or getting their heaps impounded indefinitely, gangs allowed to run the illegal drug trade and live in fortified dwellings, gangs allowed to exist in the first instance, police not interested in burglaries, horrendous child abuse despite anti-smacking law, high murder rate for such a small population..My life is constantly blighted by idiots performing burnouts outside the place where I live between 7pm to 3am in the morning most nights. Surprise surprise the police aren’t interested… Sure other places in the world are affected by crime but I thought New Zealand was a paradise that was unaffected by the major issues facing other countries – that’s the line I have heard from new immigrants. Where are they getting such information from?In conclusion:I don’t give a toss about Lord Of The Rings or Shortland Street, I don’t want to jump off bridges with an elastic band around my ankles, I don’t want to lie on a beach all day surrounded by 10,000 people getting blasted with UV radiation, I don’t want to be intimidated on the road, I don’t want to be blamed for an ethnic group’s perceived woes, I don’t want to be socially engineered, I don’t want to change my lifestyle just in case I offend some minority group, I don’t want to live in a country that crushes highly skilled and sorely needed migrants and forces them into menial jobs, I don’t give a damn about rugby, I can live without Pineapple lumps, vogels bread, humidity and mosquitos.