19 Nov 2019

The Labour led coalition government is continuing to create homelessness. The impact of immigration, failure of Kiwibuild, and attacks on the rental market, have resulted in the opposite outcomes that New Zealanders were promised.

With 56,000 new immigrants last year, less than 300 houses built by Kiwibuild, and decreasing rental property availability due to government policy and regulations that have made it unattractive to own rental property, New Zealand is now effectively importing homelessness.

“This government is failing its citizens, and the immigrants they are allowing into the country, when they cannot deliver necessities such as a place to live,” says Leighton Baker, New Conservative leader.

"For the past two years New Conservative has been calling for a period of net zero immigration so that we are able to rectify the shortfalls that already exist.

“Our immigration system is overloaded, with sources telling us that applications submitted in April are only just being processed now. The harm and false hope that is being created while good people are being held in limbo by a system that cannot cope is unacceptable,” observes Mr Baker.

Advocating for immigration must be based on reality, not ideology. New Conservative is committed to developing immigration policy that attracts the right people in a manageable process.

“We must cater for our existing population first and then be forward thinking with our immigration policies,” continues Mr Baker.

For immigration to be effective it is essential that serious consideration be given to how many people Immigration New Zealand can comfortably process each year, the number of houses available, and what jobs will be available in the long term.

“If we do not pause to ensure we are making considered decisions now, New Zealand is at risk of importing future beneficiaries,” adds Mr Baker.

New Zealand is suffering from the quick-fix solution of imported capability, rather than investing in the long term benefits of effective trade training and skills development .

“Rather than investing in New Zealand to strengthen and support its citizens, this Government has squandered enormous tax payer dollars on such things as firearms confiscation, first year tertiary free, endless consultation groups, Kiwibuild failures, and more recently the destructive policy of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act 2019,” says Mr Baker.

New Zealanders have their livelihood placed at risk through unplanned, poorly managed immigration, with housing and infrastructure failing to keep step.

“New Conservative is deeply concerned that our own citizens are suffering as a result of a reliance on immigration as the cure-all of our problems,” concludes Mr Baker.

ENDS

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