Nelson firefighter's bid to stay in country gets backing from 40,000

Friday, 1 March 2019

A petition to help a Nelson volunteer firefighter stay in the country has topped 40,000 signatures.

The plight of Steve Webster and his family gained national attention when he was photographed while helping fight the Pigeon Valley forest fire in Nelson in February.

The petition was created three weeks ago for Webster and his family, who arrived in New Zealand from Britain in 2012.

The family entered the country on an entrepeneur work visa, with the hopes of later being gaining residence.

* Fighting the Tasman fire at the front lines

* In pictures: firefighters tackle Nelson wildfires**

Started by friend and former volunteer firefighter colleague Ken Mahon, the petition is set to close on Friday and will be sent to Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway.

Steve Webster was part of the Nelson volunteer brigade 212 who helped fight the Pigeon Valley fires.

Mahon said he'd been 'blown away' by the response over the past three weeks.

'We didn't expect it to get anywhere near that number – Steve's very humbled by the support and the messages he's received.'

Mahon said he got the idea after seeing Webster's photo while fighting the forest fire that hit Nelson on February 5.

'I got so worked up [about his situation].

'I just put up a few comments on Facebook about it, and someone told me I should get a petition going, that's how it started.'

The petition said the family faced deportation. However, Immigration NZ manager Michael Carley said Webster and his family were all legally in New Zealand and that he and his wife's work visas were valid until July 6.

'They will have the opportunity to apply for further visas before then,' Carley said.

'There is no compliance action planned against the family as they're all lawfully in New Zealand.'

Nelson MP Nick Smith said he was doing everything he could to help support the family.

Smith said while the term 'deportation' was an overstatement, the family had been in limbo for the past seven years, having only being able to secure temporary work visas.

Smith provided submissions to the ministry in support of the Webster's application this year and in 2017, asking them to make an exception on the residency policy.

He said the issue with the visas stemmed back to their initial online purchase of a florist business in Nelson.

To be able to apply for residency, the business needed to meet certain cashflow and growth projections.

However, on arriving in New Zealand it became clear the business had not been as successful as advertised, and the family had paid far too much for it, Smith said.

In his 2017 submission, Smith said the Websters 'spent considerable time and money rebuilding the business which when they took ownership had been operating on reduced hours, with virtually no stock and had to rebuild its customer base'.

Webster (pictured middle) with the Nelson volunteer brigade 212, the morning after they spent the night protecting properties in the Redwood Valley.

While wife Gail Webster continued to run the business, Steve took up a job as a car dealer and also joined the Nelson and Stoke volunteer fire brigades.

Smith said while he could understand the ministry's point of view, the Websters had 'more than proved their commitment to Nelson and New Zealand'.

'The family have a significant amount of community contacts, and they have built their business up.

'While they haven't reached the original target their business has stabilised – they've done as much as anyone could have.'