Ron Mark MP
New Zealand First

Deputy Leader
30 NOVEMBER 2016

GOVERNMENT ALLOWING NZ TO BE TAKEN FOR ‘GULLIBLE FOOLS’

The government’s parent migrant sponsorship scheme is a complete farce that has been costing New Zealand taxpayers millions of dollars a year, says New Zealand First Deputy Leader Ron Mark.

“Migrants who bring their parents here are supposed to sponsor them for five years but the minister admitted in Parliament today, they don’t have to pay for their living costs which reveals what a shambles the scheme is.

“Earlier the minister confessed the scheme has cost New Zealand taxpayers tens of millions of dollars because the parents have gone to the state to get income support since their children were not supporting them.

“The government is now extending the sponsorship requirement from five to 10 years which is a joke since the five year scheme is clearly dysfunctional.

“To add insult to injury, when the children decide they want to go to greener pastures and live somewhere else overseas, they dump their parents here under the care of the New Zealand taxpayer and leave.

“In Parliament the minister said requiring the children to take their parents with them when they left New Zealand was not ‘necessary or appropriate’ baffles belief.

“The children wanted the parents with them when they first came to New Zealand – why not the same when they leave to live in another country?

“National are not interested in cutting immigration but are allowing New Zealand to be taken as a country of gullible fools,” says Mr Mark.

ENDS

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