New Zealand First is bloody right to push back against the Government’s latest immigration con job. National is busy grovelling for the Indian vote, flying in planeloads of migrants every year, while ordinary New Zealanders are left struggling with overcrowded hospitals, unaffordable housing and stretched infrastructure.
Winston Peters has been warning about this for decades. Migrants come here, take residency, get trained, enjoy all the benefits that New Zealanders have paid for, and then head straight to Australia. We are left footing the bill while Australia cashes in. This is a betrayal of the people who live and work here.
Nicola Willis and Erica Stanford dress it up as “carefully managed” immigration, but it is the same tired story. They claim the new residency pathways will be “narrow” and “targeted”, but history tells us the opposite. These schemes always blow out, always undercut Kiwi workers, and always put pressure on services that are already buckling. National is not solving the problem, they are fuelling it.
Meanwhile NZ First is the only party prepared to tell the truth. Immigration has been reckless, unfocused and damaging. The Trades and Technician Pathway and Skilled Work Experience Pathway are nothing but another way to paper over cracks instead of investing in young New Zealanders. Peters has the right idea. Extend work visas if necessary, but stop handing out residency like dole day payments.
At the next election, immigration will be one of NZ First’s biggest policies, and rightly so. Peters has already promised a Kiwi values test, sending a clear signal that New Zealand is not a doormat for anyone who wants a backdoor to Australia. If people do not want to respect our country, they should not come here.
National wants cheap votes and cheap labour. NZ First wants a fair system that puts New Zealanders first. The choice could not be clearer… and that’s coming from an ex National voter.
