New Zealand First leader Winston Peters also made comments about migrants in the House, directed at Green MP’s Lawrence Xu-Nan and Francisco Hernandez.
“The very people who are here on the very refuge that we give to them have come here with their ideas, foreign to our country, native to theirs, and they wish to impose them upon our Parliament. No, you don’t.
“You’re not going to succeed here. You might be laughing now, you might be laughing now, but you’ll be crying tomorrow. Come to this country, show some gratitude.”
During Peters’ speech, Jones said, “Call Mr Trump! Call Mr Trump!”
Trump’s recently announced immigration policy aims at removing unlawful migrants from the US and the promise of “mass deportations”.
Jones' comments follow National Minister Todd McClay yelling “you’re not in Mexico now” during a debate in July last year.
McClay later apologised.
‘Woke banks’ and ‘climate cultism’
As the Minister for Resources, Jones also spoke to Hosking about his announcement that he would fight “woke banks”.
“Mineral firms are being de-banked by these groupies, these climate groupies that have infested our banks, driven by this false ideology coming out of the United Nations.
“I actually said in the last campaign that NZ First will not be frog-marched to the altar of climate cultism.”
Jones said the banks are writing “threatening” letters to “de-bank god-fearing regional businesses”.
“What they are doing is offending the luxury beliefs of these [bank] directors and executives and their chemtrail ways of wandering around the world spouting about climate change while driving regional New Zealand to penury.”
Jones said he was astounded that “even Kiwibank seems to have swallowed the green-ade here”.
“If NZ First would have known that Kiwibank was going to be involved in this type of falsehood, it would be highly unlikely we would have agreed for them to recapitalise.
“I’m hoping that Kiwibank reconsiders their position.”
Jones said the coal industry is an “honest, legitimate industry”.
“People will back electricity before they back chilliness.”
Jones said Australian banks shouldn’t be able to “impose their own warped moral priorities”.
“Garden variety New Zealanders” are the ones selling minerals in regional New Zealand, Jones claimed.
“Climate change is not the only problem confronting New Zealand and various other nations.”
Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.
