Gerry Brownlee: Essential that we define what it is to be a Kiwi

Perhaps the greatest symbol of liberty and freedom still standing is the Statue of Liberty in New York harbour. She stands as an enduring symbol of the determination the United States has had since independence to be the greatest nation on Earth.

Fixed in bronze to the base of the great lady is the Emma Lazarus poem, an ode to freedom, that concludes: " ... give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

This was the premise on which the United States built itself to be today, arguably, the greatest nation on Earth.

Winston Peters should reflect on that. His speech to his party faithful claiming New Zealand's immigration policy leaves us "witnessing the Balkanisation of our country" did nothing more than lower the aspiration this country should and must have to raise its fortunes, and did a great deal to create the very circumstances that he warns against.

Blood in the streets from the "race riots" in Brixton, Oldham, Bradford and Burnley in Mother England, one of the greatest colonising nations ever, was caused not because immigrant groups failed to fit in but because those immigrant groups were treated as second-rate citizens in the country they had chosen to make their home.

To sensationalise his views even more, Mr Peters' speech confuses the issue of historical enmity between indigenous peoples in disputed lands with immigration into this country. In doing so, he suggests we are headed for "the hot beds of ethnic and religious conflict" in places like Kosovo, Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland.

He is wrong and alarmist.

Conflict in those countries has much more to do with the oppression of rights and suppression of cultural freedom than conflict between differing ethnic communities.

Labour's response of raising the English skill level from 5 to 6.5 was a knee-jerk and short-sighted reaction to Mr Peters' hysteria.

All laws have their flaws and those concerning immigration are no exception. There will always be people who break the law. That is why our prisons are full, and it is why not all immigrants represent themselves honestly.

To think anyone can fix it by imposing an English-language test so strict that many New Zealand-born Kiwis would struggle with it is naive. It also potentially denies us the best of the opportunities new immigrants have always brought to this country.

The irony is that many of the cases of alarm retailed by Mr Peters featured "so-called refugees".

People who turn up at our border claiming refugee status will still be allowed in, no matter how bad their English is, and they will stay at a cost to the taxpayer until the Government denies refugee status or grants them residence.

A government considering this issue and wanting to take a lead should have looked to the US and noticed the diversity of ethnic communities and the way in which they proudly proclaim their individual cultural heritage generations after their ancestors settled in their new land.

It should have also noticed how strongly they claim their US citizenship and celebrate life in the land of the free.

Much the same can be said these days of our near neighbour Australia, a culturally diverse country that is impressively patriotic, with a population that oozes national pride.

Mr Peters extols new immigrants to these shores to become New Zealanders.

A question that I think needs answering in this debate is: what does it mean to be a New Zealander? What is the model and who is to be emulated?

Does it mean to be a Maori, a Pacific Islander, a descendant of the First Four Ships settlers of Canterbury or the early merchant families of Auckland? Does it mean to be a Ten Pound Pom of the 1960s or a Dutch settler of the 1950s? A descendant of the Northland gum diggers or the Chinese goldminers of Otago? Does it mean a descendant of any immigrant to these shores, whenever they arrived?

If being a New Zealander is about the number-eight wire thing and getting on with the job, there is no better place to see that than at the local school where parents go the extra mile to provide more for their children.

At fundraising events around my electorate, an enormous contribution is made by immigrants, by way of ethnic-food stalls and cultural displays. These same groups also participate in many other community-focused events.

If part of being a New Zealander is mucking in to get the job done, these people are in it up to their elbows with the rest of us because they want the same things in their lives as the rest of us. They want things to be better.

If new immigrants question acceptance of the traditions and values that make New Zealand a nation apart, it is because we have a serious lack of pride and a fragile sense of national identity.

The US and Australia are countries that accord nationhood a higher value than any of the cultures that survive and thrive in their lands. New Zealand needs to do the same.

Although the world is increasingly borderless, New Zealand is still a country at the end of the globe, and we need to work harder and smarter to maintain the lifestyle we all expect. Our wealth per capita, man, woman and child, is about $250 a week less than that of Australia. With so many of our young people finding more exciting career options away from New Zealand, we should be comforted that we can still attract people with the skills and determination to build our economy and build a life here.

Rather than attack immigrant communities for failing to fit in, we need to define what it is to be a New Zealander and to instil the sort of nationalistic pride that truly builds a nation.

We need to ensure there is no suppression of rights or oppression of cultural expression within the law of this land. We need to ensure one standard of citizenship for all who claim this country as their home.

By rejecting the menace in the rhetoric of Winston Peters we can all lift the lamp beside the golden door in New Zealand.

* Gerry Brownlee is the National MP for Ilam.

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Herald feature: Immigration