Dr Wayne Mapp
National Immigration Spokesman

14 June 2004

Govt caves in on NZ as birthplace of convenience

The Labour Government has caved into political correctness by not preventing automatic citizenship rights for parents using New Zealand as a birthplace of convenience, says National's Immigration spokesman, Wayne Mapp.

The current law grants citizenship automatically to children born in New Zealand and opens the door for their parents as well.

"This has seen New Zealand become something of a birthplace of convenience for too many people from other countries, allowing them to avoid normal immigration controls" says Dr Mapp.

The Irish have just voted "yes" in a referendum denying automatic citizenship to children with foreign parents born in Ireland out of convenience. All countries within the European Union have taken similar measures.

"Labour promised to crack down on current law which is wide open to exploitation but this has been left right out of new citizenship legislation."

According to Statistics New Zealand there are more than 1300 non-resident births in this country each year.

"With policies like this we will see maternity wards in hotels and New Zealanders missing out on maternity care as they are forced to queue with foreigners abusing our system," says Dr Mapp.

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