Grey Power Does Not Call for Restrictions On Asian Immigration

Grey Power has no specific policy on Asian immigration and has not called for Asian immigration to be restricted, said Mr. Bill Rayner, Zone Director of Grey Power Auckland Region.

“There has been media comment in response to a skewed article in an Auckland suburban newspaper. The article featured the flamboyant comment of an individual Grey Power member with no official capacity on a Grey Power Zone 2 (Auckland) submission to the Auckland Council Auckland Plan process aimed at determining Auckland’s future direction for the next 30 years to 2040.”

The initial Council Plan has two core underlying assumptions that firstly the City will grow by 640,000 in the next 30 years, and secondly the Plan states that the Asian ethnic grouping of the City will go from 17% in 2006 to 25% in 2021, ten years from now with the European and Other ethnic grouping dropping from 60% in 2006 to 48% in 2021. It is anticipated that this trend would continue to 2040 with an increasing shift in the ethnic makeup of Auckland, and a major change in the very short time of 30 years.

Grey Power has no specific policies or opinions on these changes at this stage.

The submission requests that the Auckland Council develop a defined and clear agreed policy and strategy on both:

- the population growth projections to establish an agreed optimum desirable

size for Auckland

- the projected changes in the ethnic makeup and the base culture and values of

Auckland’s population

- and hold a Population Policy Forum to present the Council policy and strategy

for community analysis and input on the two issues.

Grey Power along with all other interested community groups would make submissions to the Council on the policy to the Forum in due course.

All Grey Power has done is request the Auckland Council to establish an agreed position on population and ethnic mix to give a sound underlying base for the planning process of Auckland City, and provide an opportunity for community input.

The submission has been with the Council since May and has been through the initial submission hearing process, and Grey Power is disappointed that the issue has erupted into the public arena in the way it has.

Grey Power felt it was inappropriate to give TV interviews on the issue a few days before the Election, and has declined to do so, and it is particularly disappointing that the Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres did not exercise the same restraint. It is anticipated that the whole question can be clarified and discussed after the Election.

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