Labour follows Trump in saying it will cap immigration
Stuff reports:
Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Little, said immigration was “positive for any country” but in times when “our economy is creaking, we need to be able to turn the tap down a bit”.
If that was all he said, I would agree. I think adjusting immigration settings can be quite sensible if there is a strain on infrastructure.
Little’s comments come after a visit last week to Lower Hutt, where he said immigration was having some downwards impact on the country’s wages.
He said the hospitality industry was a good example of where migrant workers could be affecting wages.
A lot of Chinese and Indian migrants with “particular cooking skills” could actually be sourced locally and the country didn’t need to rely on immigration to fill that skill-set, he said.
Are they going check surnames of all the chefs now?
Does Little have any evidence to this claim that there are lots of NZers with these skills who are out of work?
Also most ironically the FTA signed wth China (negotiated by Labour) explicitly mandates up to 200 Chinese chefs a year can come and work here. So Little is now campaigning against Labour’s own FTA!
On Wednesday Little stood by those comments and said if he was in Government he would put a cap on immigration right now.
That’s a nonsense statement. He can’t. Here’s why.
- You can’t cap Australians migrating to NZ
- You can’t cap NZers returning home to NZ
You can adjust the number of points you need to qualify for a residential visa and there may be a case for that. But that will not cap immigration. Most of the net migration flows (Australians and NZers deciding where to live) are not subject to Government decision.
Key said he couldn’t work out where Little was coming from.
“One minute they’re saying they don’t want people with Chinese-sounding names buying houses, now they’re saying they don’t want people with Chinese-sounding names making chicken chop suey.”
“Look, there are some Chinese migrants who come to New Zealand but they’re hard working and they do a good job,” he said.
It is obvious Little is dog whistling at Asian immigrants with his comments.
I dare him to go to have announced at Pasifika last weekend that he thinks we have too many immigrants and he wants to curtail Pacific Island immigration!
Maybe the reason he is targeting Asian immigration, not Pasifika immigration, is because Labour doesn’t get so much of the Asian vote?