Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland

13 JULY 2016

Key Misleads Public Over Numbers of Kiwis Returning

New Zealand citizens are not returning to New Zealand in hordes from Australia as Prime Minister John Key repeatedly suggests, says New Zealand First Leader and Northland Member of Parliament Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“Mr Key is doing his utmost to divert attention from the record immigration into this country that he has fostered.

“Statistics in the year to May 2016 show there has been a net loss in New Zealand of 3664 New Zealand citizens going to live in Australia.

“What Mr Key should be concerned about is who is coming from Australia. Many people coming from Australia are not NZ citizens but people who immigrated here and used New Zealand as a back door for quick entry to Australia.

“As a result Australia developed restrictions on people coming from NZ in 2001. These rules make post 2001 arrivals in Australia second-class citizens in Australia.

“Those who left NZ quickly after gaining permanent resident visas are now coming back, using New Zealand as a safety net.

“They are aware of the benefits they can get here and not Australia.

“Foreign nationals know how easy it is to exploit New Zealand’s slack immigration laws while ordinary Kiwis have to end up paying,” Mr Peters says.

“The Prime Minister and similar apologists are being deliberately deceptive in seeking to mislead New Zealanders as to the huge number of immigrants coming to this country,” says Mr Peters.

Year to May 2016
Permanent and long term arrivals and departures to and from Australia
NZ citizens
20,458 departed
16,794 arrivals
Citizens of other countries
8896 arrivals
3594 departures

ENDS

© Scoop Media