Northland MP Winston Peters says the Government is allowing "absolute crap" to settle in New Zealand, a day after Statistic New Zealand announced immigration figures are at a record high.
New Zealand had a net gain of 56,275 migrants in the year to March, 75 percent up on the previous 12 months and a whopping 2250 percent on the year before that.
The gain is being driven not just by an increased number of people moving to New Zealand, but 13 percent fewer leaving. It's expected annual net migration will surpass 60,000 by the end of the year if nothing is changed.
"If you're concerned about how you can provide hospital services, school services and housing, particularly in Auckland, then this is an absolute disaster," New Zealand First leader Mr Peters said on TV3's Paul Henry programme this morning.
"You've got net 34,000 coming to Auckland, who will need about 11,000 houses – and we're not even building that many so far. So we're not even providing for the incoming, let alone those who are here, coming from the provinces."
Mr Peters is concerned not just about the numbers of people being allowed to move to New Zealand, but the quality.
"We're bringing in a stack of people who are, for example, going into the so-called fruit-picking industry and are cheating Inland Revenue big-time," he claims.
"Apparently we are the hungriest people in the world because they're all down at restaurants coming in as chefs and what-have-you, when we've got tons of people who can do the job ourselves."
But he admits his claims are largely anecdotal, because the Government "won't keep the figures, they won't do the analysis, they won't for example tell you who's coming in and buying homes".
"You pick up the Herald today, you'll find we're the third-most popular destination for what? Chinese crooks. That would alarm us in most parts of our history, but right now we're numbed down to accepting absolute crap."
Mr Peters insists his party isn't opposed to immigration; it just needs to be focused on people with jobs and homes in cities other than Auckland to go to.
"If you ask any young person in Auckland – or for that matter around the country, but trying to buy a house in Auckland – how they'll get a start, the answer is they won't."
3 News
source: newshub archive
