Brown Peter: Immigration Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Immigration Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11239] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Well I have to say that I have seen and heard so many U-turns this afternoon on this bill that it is beyond belief—beyond belief. 
Pansy Wong 
: What U-turns? 
PETER BROWN 
: There have been U-turns from Government members and certainly U-turns from National members. I can say that the road to Damascus has been very congested—very congested—tonight. But I can understand the Government and I can understand the Minister in charge of the bill the Hon David Cunlifffe because of a clause written in the confidence and supply agreement with New Zealand First. I will read it because I want to put this clause on record in  
Hansard 
. Under the subheading “Immigration” the bullet point states: “Conduct a full review of immigration legislation and administrative practices within the immigration service to ensure the system meets the needs of New Zealand in the 21st century and has appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the system is not susceptible to fraud or other abuse and taking note of other items raised by New Zealand First.” I think that that makes it quite clear that this bill is the result of a review that was instigated totally—totally—by New Zealand First and we have been on this crusade— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Would the member kindly confirm the date of that confidence and supply agreement with reference to the fact that the bill has been underway for 3 years? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: No. The member knows very well that that is a debating point. 
PETER BROWN 
: I do not know whether to respond to the Minister because that will encourage him to make further unnecessary interruptions. New Zealand First has been long—and I mean long—years on the record as saying immigration policy in this country is not right. It needs addressing totally; it has been addressed on a piecemeal basis. We and particularly my leader the Rt Hon Winston Peters have been called xenophobic and all sorts of other names that are not particularly nice. Nevertheless we have stuck to the issue and said that immigration should be reviewed totally. At last it has been and this bill is the result. If the review had been a minor review or if the review had come out with minor amendments the bill would not be so thick. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Yes that’s true. 
PETER BROWN 
: I thank the Minister—he agrees with that. 
In essence—and we have long said this—immigration policy should be skills based and people who come here should have good health. People who come here should be of good character. People who come here should speak English. Finally and most important people who come here must integrate into this society—they must become Kiwis and they must become New Zealanders. They should not come here and set up their own mini-State or little enclave that reflects the country they have come from. They should come here and participate and belong to the country. 
Tariana Turia 
: Pardon? 
PETER BROWN 
: Did the member ask a question? 
Tariana Turia 
: Yes I’m just saying “Pardon?”. 
PETER BROWN 
: I might be going deaf; I cannot hear her. 
Immigration on a worldwide basis has become an ever-increasing problem. If we went to places in Europe we would see that they have problems. Australia has had problems but in fairness to the Australians I say that they are keeping their problems under control as best they can. We have tried to operate here on a “hail-fellow-well-met” type of policy—ad hoc an open-door policy at some times a closed-door policy at other times and I am hopeful that this legislation will address those problems. 
But it is important that we give new migrants and refugees some education-type system to let them know what this country is all about—to let them know what New Zealand stands for in terms of lifestyle and to let them know how the democratic process works in this country and how important it is to this country. We need to let them know what New Zealand stands for in terms of values and how important human values—freedom and those sorts of values—are to this country. We need to let them know also that we want to control crime in this country and that if they want to come here and get involved in crime then they will be shown the exit door in short order. 
This is physically a very beautiful country tucked way down at the bottom of the South Pacific. It is a fantastic country. MPs are privileged to fly over large parts of it on many a day and whenever I fly I look out of the window of the plane and think what a fantastic place this is and how privileged I am to live in this country. New Zealanders are basically friendly hard-working innovative and efficient people dedicated to their cause and their country. They are the type of people who make up this country. Those are two significant assets that New Zealand has and the third asset—and we must not overlook it—is that there are not too many of us. If people want to live in a crowded-type scenario they should go to live in Tokyo— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: London. 
PETER BROWN 
: —London New York—they should go to live there. We should put a value on being a place with a relatively low population in which case I suggest in short order that it is time we developed a population policy. I know I am digressing a little bit from the bill but it all ties together. 
 Some years ago I think there was a population conference and it is high time we started looking at having another one to work out how many people we want here and the time frame to get them here—the rate of increase in the population that we should allow for. Allowing people in on an open-door policy puts a strain on this country’s infrastructure. What do I mean by that? It puts a strain on our hospitals on our schools on our medical services on our roads and even on our transport systems. So we should allow the population to increase under controlled conditions. 
From time to time people come here illegally or abuse the system. They are not wanted in this country. They take advantage of New Zealanders’ good nature or they exploit some sort of circumstance to their own advantage and to the disadvantage of the country. They commit crimes and do things that we should not encourage them to do. The Immigration Service is charged with getting rid of them. We have to improve those systems. For up to something like 5 years the Zaoui case has cost us so many millions of dollars that we have lost count of how much although New Zealand First has tried to monitor it. That is not good enough. I am not talking about the rights or wrongs of Mr Zaoui; I am talking about the system and the process. They make this country look like a laughing stock and I am hopeful that this bill will go some way towards addressing those problems. We welcome the use of classified information in certain circumstances. We welcome biometric information being used. In fact if it were left to me I would DNA test everybody who comes into the country be it on a permanent or a temporary basis but that might be going a little too far. 
I want to make a final point—and I say to Pansy Wong that I am sorry but she is totally wrong in this. It is that New Zealand First has long advocated that the Immigration Service should be a stand-alone department exactly like the Customs Service and the New Zealand Police. That has been our policy and our attitude for many a year. I know that the National Party has had a road to Damascus experience and I welcome that but I ask its members to please not start saying that this is their policy and that New Zealand First has come on board with it. We have advocated this policy for many a year. For many a year we have had it split off at the select committees as the member may or may not know. 
Hon Member 
: They’ll claim anything. 
PETER BROWN 
: They are so desperate they will claim anything. 
New Zealand First rejoices in this bill coming to this House and absolutely supports it going to the select committee. We do not think that the Government has got it right. We know that the bill has flaws in it but we will do our best to get it right. We welcome the opportunity to review the legislation that governs our immigration policy.