2 minute read
Bring Gerry Back
Laurens story about how determination, perseverance and love won through
In January 2020, I got married to my husband, Gerry. Little did I know that 2 months later, we were going to be separated not knowing when we would see each other again…
In 2019, my husband Gerry and I were living overseas in England, as he was completing his PhD. We both came back to New Zealand for our wedding but soon after Gerry had to go back to England to finish up his thesis. He had a flight booked to come to live in Tauranga with me on the 24th of March but on the 23rd of March it was announced that the borders were closing due to COVID 19. At that time, Gerry was getting ready to pack his bags to get on a plane the next morning. Not sure if he would be allowed on the plane at that stage, we called Immigration NZ, who advised that he wasn’t allowed to catch the flight, as by the time he would arrive, the NZ borders would be shut to foreigners. Gerry is an Australian. I was a little sad to not have Gerry home for lockdown, but I was confident that they would soon allow partners back into the country. In July, the government announced that partners of kiwis could enter NZ. As you can imagine, we were overwhelmed with joy. To our surprise, our application was rejected, over
and over again. It turned out, only partners with a partnership visa were allowed to return to NZ. Prior to COVID19, Australians could come to live and work in New Zealand without any visas and Kiwis can do the same in Australia. Gerry, being an Aussie did not have a partnership visa for New Zealand. I started a petition which asked the government to change the rules to allow Australian partners to return to New Zealand. I also talked to the media who were interested in our story and managed to get into the news around New Zealand and Australia. Amazingly, our petition grew from a few hundred signatures to 16,000 signatures. I also requested information on how many Australian partners were denied entry into New Zealand through the Official Information Act. It turns out, there were roughly 500 other Australian partners in the same situation as us. Finally the rules were changed in October of this year and Australian partners were allowed back into the country. Gerry was on a plane as soon as he could. I went to pick him up from quarantine at the end of the Term 3 school holidays and we were so happy to finally see each other again after spending 9 months apart.
Mission - ‘Bring Gerry Back’ - completed.
