Alwyn Owen and Jack Perkins look at the Kiwi connection in Surfers Paradise, Australia, and ask what draws us to Australia's tinsel utopia with its beaches and cream complexion and high rise living.
Jack Perkins visits the beach at Surfers Paradise and looks for New Zealanders - he asks those he finds what draws them to the area, and how they find life. They speak about their jobs, wages, accommodation costs, and how they spend their time. One man says that "girls, work, and sunshine" is what drew him over. There is plenty of work for labourers restaurant workers, but there are some dole bludgers too.
There are also comments on Australian attitudes towards Kiwis.
New Zealanders Linda and Ray Harper, originally from Hamilton, are interviewed. They both work at the Iluka hotel, after arriving in Surfers Paradise nine months previously. Linda Harper cites dissatisfaction with the New Zealand government as the reason for their move, and her anger with the "Maori situation" and "Maoris getting the land back". She says some things in Surfers Paradise aren't as she expected, with high rents and difficulty in finding well-paying work - though she says the cost of living is cheaper overall. She speaks about lifestyle differences between Australia and New Zealand.
Jack Perkins visits a job centre in Surfers, which has many clients. He speaks to Assistant Manager David Craig about Kiwi job-seekers, and the work available for them. He then visits a shop manager who speaks about theft, and about the appeal of the area. She speaks about New Zealanders she knows who made the move over, and the range of success and failure they encountered. There is resentment towards New Zealander's who move over only to take up welfare payments.
Joe Mita from Otorohanga is then interviewed. He works at Grundy's Fun Parlour, though he is a panelbeater by trade. He speaks about his work, his expectations about the move, and attitudes towards New Zealanders. He is staying at a backpackers, for which he pays ten dollars a night. He speaks about the future and his hopes to find another job, save some money, and keep moving around.
Jack Perkins then speaks to New Zealanders Bert and Marama Martin. Bert was formerly a music producer with Radio New Zealand, and Marama was a radio announcer and a weather presenter on television. They moved to Surfers Paradise to work in real estate, but it wasn't what they expected. Bert says they were "too nice" to work in real estate, and he found some practices in the industry to be quite alarming. Marama gives an example of a friend being told to forge a purchaser's signature on a property purchase agreement.
Bert says they didn't stick with the real estate industry, and are now "gracefully retired". Marama speaks about the importance of honesty and integrity, while also remaining "self-contained" (i.e. not showing the Aussies how to do things). She says her community is her home and the friends that visit. There is a barrier that the wider community puts up between themselves and "everybody else". They then speak about identity - Marama jokingly refers to herself as a "Mossie" [a Māori in Australia], and Bert says they will become Australian citizens only if they can retain their New Zealand citizenship, as they want to retain their Kiwi identity while becoming part of Australia.