National Tone Deaf to Immigration Disaster
The government remains brazenly deaf to the concerns of New Zealanders with the torrent of immigration soaring to
another record level, says New Zealand First Leader and Northland Member of parliament Rt Hon Winston Peters.
“In the year to May 2017, the number of non-New Zealand migrants has topped 72,000 for the first time and reached a
staggering 73,300 net.
“The government cannot blame high net migration on returning Kiwis – New Zealand citizens leaving and returning
practically balance each other out.
“Even the mainstream media and the Labour Party, who slammed New Zealand First for years as racist and xenophobic in our
call for greater restraint over immigration numbers, have changed their tune and called for cuts.
“Everyone sees it – just as they see the Auckland housing crisis which continues to be exacerbated by mass immigration,
but we have a government and Prime Minister tone deaf and in denial.
“They refuse to believe we have a housing crisis; they refuse to accept the massive overloads mass immigration bring on
our schools, hospitals, roads, housing and not to mention jobs.
“New Zealand has 130,000 citizens unemployed and more than 90,000 aged from 15 to 24 not in work or training.
“More low-skilled immigrants makes it tougher for them to find jobs yet we keep on bringing in a population to fill a
city the size of Rotorua, year after year.
“The UK, with a population of 65 million, wants its immigration target down to 100,000 net and yet New Zealand with a
vastly smaller population of 4.5 million is taking in more than 73,000.
“And how long before it reaches 100,000? National’s behaviour is now economic treason,” says Mr Peters.