checked out a few of the Stagea's in NZ, most of them are clapped out and run down with high mileage. The only decent ones worth buying are too expensive, or are modified (ie showcar style). Stageas in NZ is like a commodore wagon here. Plus you'll pay tax twice on the car (once for when it came into NZ, and once when it comes into Australia). Also its cheaper to ship a car from Japan, than it is from NZ... wierd as that sounds.
You can land Stageas from Japan from $11,000 including compliance, totally legitimately. No point trying to run circles around the law when its that straight forward.