Don't Know Minister Must Go Now Says Peters

New Zealand First has demanded the immediate resignation of the Immigration Minister who admitted in Parliament during question time today that she did not know how many immigrants arrived in New Zealand last year.

Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters said that Lianne Dalziel’s admission that she did not have any accurate figures that clearly spelt out the number of immigrants showed that she was incompetent and should go.

“The minister has bluffed and blustered and tried to mix up foreign students with immigrants but when the crunch came today she could not answer a simple question.”

Mr Peters said that the latest official figures showed that 70,500 immigrants arrived in 2002 while there were also more than 67,000 foreign fee-paying students in the country. (Page C7 Dominion Post, 5 February 2003)

“In addition to not knowing the true numbers of non-New Zealanders the Immigration Service is bringing into the country, the minister cannot even carry out the most simple calculations of addition and subtraction.

“For the past year we have been trying to get straight answers out of this minister and the profession of ignorance today proves she should not stay another day,” said Mr Peters.

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