I noted last week how anti-immigration party, New Zealand First, has increased its voter support from 3% to 10.5%, according to the latest Roy Morgan polling, meaning that it could hold the balance of power and decide who forms the next government.
Well, this morning New Zealand First’s leader, Winston Peters, delivered a stirring speech that doubled-down against the National Government’s mass immigration program, claiming it is providing “the facade of prosperity” and eroding the nation’s capital base:
Mass immigration fired economic growth has a huge price to it…
There are still nearly 140,000 people without jobs.
The government trumpets a nominal annual rate of GDP growth of around 3% – but the bulk of that is from a 2% annual population growth. Our GDP less 2% from mass net immigration is well towards the bottom and not the top of the OECD as the government frequently, falsely claims.
What is happening is that the massive immigration influx is distorting all the economic indicators – and creating a very flattering but totally misleading impression that NZ is an economic success…
Put simply, rapid population growth has not been matched by adequate funding across a whole spectrum of services…
It has been doing this living off New Zealand’s capital built by previous generations.
Living off capital is not a sound principle for either an individual or a nation.
At best it’s a short-term fix.
When it is applied as a country’s policy it is courting disaster.
A country’s capital is both physical and human.
It includes the existing stock of housing, schools, hospitals, roading and other infrastructure that has been built up over decades…
The government has shamelessly used spin to propagate the myth, that somehow New Zealand can absorb a staggering influx of over 70,000 net immigrants a year – at no cost!
Someone bears those costs– and it’s ordinary Kiwis!
At the recent Masters Games in Auckland the locals were asked to endure the extra stress of 29,000 visiting sporting veterans on motorways, transport and accommodation.
Well Auckland has been taking far bigger numbers than that every year recently. And they aren’t going home after 10 days.
As NZ First has long pointed out we are adding a city the size of Rotorua or New Plymouth every year.
Think of what that entails in terms of extra:
• Housing
• Education facilities
• Health facilities
• Infrastructure, such as road and rail..So that’s a Rotorua every year with all its components and none of that has been properly planned and properly funded under National.
They won’t even acknowledge the massive costs that are being imposed through population growth.
In their make-believe world immigration is a free good – a gift.
They have turned a blind eye to the downside of immigration and trumpet how well the economy has grown…
The fact is, massive immigration is neo-liberal, globalist voodoo.
It is an attack on those who believe in the nation state.
Reduced to its worst it tells so many New Zealanders that you are actually better off even though you don’t feel like it.
There is a touchingly arrogant elitism in their approach. But the blunt reality is that we will spend the next 15 years trying to fund the infrastructure deficit that their policies have created.
The bills have to be paid even if Ministers of Finance contrive to keep them out of the government’s accounts…
In the September election the state of the economy will be a primary consideration in how New Zealanders vote.
And New Zealanders will be weighing up the real economy – not the false and fabricated version this government has been touting.
NZ First says that National has squandered enough of New Zealand’s capital.We have exposed a government addiction to massive immigration at record levels to mask the underlying poor performance of the NZ economy.
Now a growing number of political interests are climbing on the bandwagon, but if they couldn’t see what was coming why would you trust them to fix it.
Every country could flatter its economic growth by turning on the immigration tap.
I suspect Winston Peters’ speech will resonate with many Kiwis – particularly those locked-out of the housing market, stuck in insecure and low paying jobs, and/or sick and tired of being stuck in traffic.
Given New Zealand has a mixed-member proportional representation electoral system, this means New Zealand First could gain many seats at the 23 September General Election and, in the process, become the kingmaker that decides which major party takes office.
If only Australia’s Pauline Hanson had the brains to present the immigration issue as eloquently as Winston Peters, rather than resorting to daft racist overtures.
