“Instead of wise, focused, and essential immigration, the fast tracking of residency for 170,000 immigrants on working visas is a blatant return to the dangerous unfettered immigration policies of the past thirty years,” says Winston Peters Leader of New Zealand First.

“It and will only add to the immense unmanageable infrastructure deficit across the country.”

“Controlled and sound immigration is essential to New Zealand’s economic and social future – but mass immigration being used as a mechanism to fill jobs and prop up the economy is as dangerous as it is out of touch.”

“New Zealand simply cannot sustain that number of immigrants without adding to the pressures on our housing, health, education, and employment.”

“The return of this short-sighted approach being instigated by the ‘be kind’ government will only lead to an increase of the already massive pressures on our infrastructure and will continue to drive wages down for ordinary kiwis.”

“What’s worse is that this is all being done under the guise of a necessity because of Covid and the need for essential workers.”

“Most of the jobs that are being filled are only deemed ‘essential’ because the government has failed to properly plan and train existing kiwis to fill those roles. The tens of thousands of construction and manufacturing jobs that are going to be filled should have been filled by trained kiwis as a priority.”

“The past thirty years has shown the results of irresponsible immigration policies. As a country we have seen a pause in numbers entering New Zealand over the past eighteen months due to the pandemic – but the return to mass immigration is clearly back on this government’s agenda.”

“It is clearly too hard for the ‘be kind’ government to just say ‘no’ when it matters,” says Mr Peters.

“The irony cannot be any more palpable when we have thousands of visa holders lining up down the streets wanting to be fast tracked for residency – yet we still have many tens of thousands of kiwi citizens who are trapped overseas and shut out from returning to their home country by this government.”

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