New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is using immigration to grab votes and publicity because an election is approaching, the National Party says.
"The sad fact is Asian communities have to brace themselves every three years for this kind of unwelcome and unwanted attention," National's ethnic affairs spokeswoman, Pansy Wong, said
yesterday.
"Winston Peters is again using the immigration issue to get publicity and votes in the lead-up to the election."
Mr Peters told a public meeting in Wellington on Wednesday that a "staggering" number of people were being allowed in, and the character of the country was changing.
In Greater Auckland, he said, a third of the people were born overseas, Asian numbers had more than doubled in a decade and two-thirds of New Zealand's Asians lived there.
"There has been massive and largely out-of-control immigration into New Zealand, and that is not abating," he said.
Ms Wong said Mr Peters used immigrants to raise his public profile, but in private told members of Asian communities that he was impressed by their hard work and saving ethic.
"It is understandable that Mr Peters has to say far-fetched things to get a headline these days," she said, "but his message of opportunistic reaction is not the smart way to do it because New Zealanders are fair-minded people who have moved to embrace a multicultural society."
- NZPA
