Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Immigration Minister Erica Stanford. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Immigration Minister Erica Stanford. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Senior minister Erica Stanford’s comments on not replying to people from India seeking immigration advice, and likening the messages to “spam”, could have been said better, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says.
Stanford, who is the Immigration Minister, says the comments have been taken “wildly out of context”, telling reportersat a stand-up on Wednesday there were “untidy political games” at play.
It comes as New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters arrives in India tomorrow amid negotiations of a free trade deal between the two countries.
Several Indian news outlets have also covered the news, including the Times of India, India Today and the Indian Weekender.
Stanford’s comments were made in the House in response to questioning from Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime on recent revelations Stanford had sent Parliamentary business to her personal Gmail account.
Prime had asked Stanford for reassurance all emails relating to her work as a minister that had been sent to her personal email account had been captured on the official record.
Ministers are required to retain such emails and correspondence under the Official Information Act (OIA).
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“I receive a lot of unsolicited emails like, for example, things from people in India asking for immigration advice, which I never respond to,” Stanford said in the House.
“I almost regard those as being akin to spam, and so there are those ones. But, similarly, other Ministers have had probably very similar issues.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Stanford said any “reasonable person would expect that if I receive an email to my personal email that says ”can I please have a job and a visa" – that’s not something I would respond to."
Foreign Minister Winston is set to visit India this week. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Luxon also touched on the issue during a stand-up on Wednesday, saying: “I think she could have expressed it better”.
“Maybe she could have worded it better ... but the point is she was genuinely talking to a volume of unsolicited emails from people all around the world – obviously the recent case at the top of her mind was from India who reached out to her personal account."
Labour MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan shared the Hansard transcript of the interaction between Stanford and Prime on Facebook.
In that Facebook post, Radhakrishnan said Stanford had singled out people from India in “a negative light”.
Radhakrishnan was the first person of Indian origin to become a Minister in New Zealand under the previous Labour Government.
Labour MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“If you’re from India, don’t bother emailing her because it’s automatically considered spam.
“So much for the National govt’s all-of-government focus on strengthening the relationship between India & New Zealand and focus on people-to-people links.”
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.
