Government bars immigration debate

By FRANCESCA MOLD political reporter

The Government has rejected a request from Act leader Richard Prebble that Parliament formally dissociate itself from Winston Peters' attacks on Asian immigration.

Mr Prebble will today ask MPs for permission to propose a motion in Parliament recording concerns about the New Zealand First leader's "politics of racial division".

The motion will be debated if all MPs approve the request.

But the Leader of the House, Dr Michael Cullen, said yesterday that Labour would not support Mr Prebble's motion because the debate would take up time needed to make progress with legislation.

He said Labour was sympathetic to the principles Act was trying to raise, but it had better things to do than give NZ First politicians a platform to "spew out their anti-immigrant agenda".

Mr Prebble yesterday claimed that comments by Mr Peters at his party's conference on Sunday had incited racial bigotry.

He said Asian New Zealanders and their children had reported incidents of racial abuse since the speech, in which Mr Peters claimed New Zealand was headed towards sectarianism and civil unrest because of the Government's immigration policy.

In the speech to about 200 party faithful, Mr Peters accused the Government of overseeing the wholesale replacement of New Zealand's population. "For every New Zealander that leaves, three immigrants from the Third World replace them."

He criticised migrants for not trying to become mainstream New Zealanders.

Mr Prebble said Mr Peters' claims were misleading, a misuse of statistics and often false.

"The reality is that there is no doubt that immigration has been economically positive for New Zealand."

Mr Peters has been absent from Parliament for two days. He is not allowed to return until he apologises for his accusation last week that Speaker Jonathan Hunt was involved in a cover-up. Mr Peters made the comment on Thursday after he was told by Mr Hunt to leave the chamber.

His ejection was prompted by his refusal to shorten a question to Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel and ignoring repeated requests by the Speaker to sit down.

When Mr Hunt was told about the comment, he said Mr Peters would not get away with it and risked being "named" - a parliamentary term for suspending an MP.

Mr Peters has not appeared in the House since Thursday. His office did not return a call yesterday from the Herald asking why he had been absent.

However, the NZ First leader issued a press statement describing Mr Prebble's notice of motion as a "political stunt by the increasingly irrelevant leader of the Act Liberace party".

He said NZ First MPs would be pleased to take up the offer of a debate on immigration policy.

Further reading
Feature: Immigration