Ardern’s election promise shattered as NZ immigration booms

In the lead-up to the September 2017 general election, the New Zealand Labour Party launched a plan to reduce immigration by around a third in a bid to relieve chronic housing and infrastructure pressures (especially around Auckland):

…in recent years our population has been growing rapidly as record numbers of migrants arrive here. This has happened without the Government planning for the impact immigration is having on our country… This has contributed to the housing crisis, put pressure on hospitals and schools, and added to the congestion on roads…

Labour will… take a breather on immigration… In total, these changes are estimated to reduce net migration by 20,000-30,000. Without these changes there would be up to 10,000 more houses needed and up to 20,000 more vehicles on our roads annually.

Today, Statistics New Zealand released immigration data showing that net migration continue to boom, adding 280,000 people to New Zealand’s population in the five years to June 2019:

Since 2013, migrant arrivals have been consistently high, resulting in a sustained period of high net migration. In the five years ended June 2019, net migration added about 280,000 people to New Zealand’s population…

Recent net migration gains have been driven by non-New Zealand citizens (figure 2)…

The Labour Government has also recently announced a bunch of measures to increase immigration into New Zealand, including:

• dramatically expanding access to lower-wage temporary migrant workers for New Zealand businesses;
• increase foreign seasonal workers by over 3,000 to 16,000; and
• allow 1,000 skilled migrants to bring their elderly parents into New Zealand.

Jacinda Adern has unambiguously broken her key election commitment to reduce immigration, while effectively declaring war on Labour’s traditional working class base.