Jones Dail: Immigration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Jones Dail: Immigration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:609;Page:6733] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
:  
During all the months that I have been in this House—almost a year again now—New Zealand First has been saying that this Government’s immigration policy is in absolute disarray and that it does not know what it is doing. We have put forward to the Government cases of corruption. We have said that the whole system needs to be reorganised and that the Minister does not know what she is doing and she ought to resign. 
This bill is clear evidence that everything we have been saying is right. All that is left is for the Minister to go. Of course one cannot get a word in when the Minister is in the House on television or anywhere. She tries to run roughshod over everybody’s right of speech. She can go elsewhere and talk over everybody else she likes but as far as New Zealand First is concerned she will not do it in this House while New Zealand First members are speaking. 
The failure that is inherent in the bill before us is the fact that the Government wants to move away from the very basic structure from a points system to an occupation-based system. Government members want to rush the bill through the House under urgency without laying it on the Table for 3 days which is usual and without members being able to have a better look at it. That is a totally unconstitutional way of handling this matter and I join with other members of Parliament who take that view. 
Of course it is a great shame but not a surprise that United Future joins the Labour Party in this way. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
DAIL JONES 
: It is no problem to me I cannot hear the member anyway because I am talking so loudly. 
As far as United Future is concerned it is disappointing that all its members did in this debate was read out speeches prepared on their behalf by someone in the spin doctor’s office and they read them very well. It took exactly 10 minutes as was planned but I do not think they fully understood what they were doing. But clearly as part of the coalition they are willing to see the New Zealand system falling apart under this dreadful Minister of Immigration. 
It does not come as a surprise of course to anyone in New Zealand to find the Labour Party introducing this legislation. We know from so much experience that the Labour Party spends tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands on getting various research polls undertaken. When Labour members see a poll that shows their policy is not right what do they do? They bring in new legislation. They bring in a bill change the policy say that they will legislate in one particular way or another and if that does not work they change their policy once more. That is what they have done here. 
It was very very clear when McCann-Erickson did the poll for the Human Rights Commission. It showed the Labour Party’s immigration policy in absolute disarray—it was an absolute failure. What did Labour members do? They had a knee-jerk reaction and brought this legislation into the House not just in an ordinary way but under urgency. It is good that the bill is going to a select committee and of course New Zealand First voted to make sure it will go to a select committee. The next bill the Immigration Amendment Bill (No. 2) will not have that luxury of course but it is good that this bill is going to a select committee. 
One of the greatest problems with this legislation will be the issue of corruption. The Green Party member said that as did the National Party speaker. Those of us who are familiar with the way in which corruption works—and I am an immigrant from Asia—know that bribing officials to have one’s case moved up the list is the classic example of corruption working. There was an instance many years ago in the land titles office in Auckland where someone tried to beat the system and have the deposit of a land title given priority. The land titles office squashed that and made sure they were done on a first come first served basis. If one tries to juggle a system by juggling people’s priorities the obvious complaint made of the Government department will be that X’s case was moved to the top of the list because X knew the Minister or even worse. 
One of the best things about being in New Zealand—and I think every immigrant to New Zealand would appreciate this especially if he or she comes from a country such as Pakistan which must be one of the most corrupt countries in the world—is that there is no corruption in New Zealand and no possibility of corruption. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Use Tuariki John Delamere’s corruption! 
DAIL JONES 
: If the Minister would repeat that statement about Tuariki John Delamere outside this House instead of hiding under parliamentary privilege which she has done up till now maybe it would be a different story. What she has done is an example of corruption in the sense that having made that statement she is hiding in the House. She will not repeat it elsewhere free from parliamentary privilege. She may well duck her head now. I have no time for what Mr Delamere is doing. But if the Minister is going to make a complaint about him she should do it free from parliamentary privilege and not hide and skulk in a select committee and try to get a cheap jibe at somebody who is only doing something that may be legal; even if it is broadly speaking referred to as a scam. 
One of the reasons New Zealand First is opposing this legislation is that it does nothing for the massive increase in immigration to New Zealand. As I said to the Minister—and I had to explain this to her more than once at the Finance and Expenditure Committee the other day—on the question of immigration to New Zealand the report in the April 2003 edition of the  
New Zealand Journal of Geography 
 prepared by very eminent professors from Waikato University made the clear point that: “In total 190000 people including international students were approved for permanent and temporary residence in the year ended June 30th  2002.” 
The Labour Minister of Immigration now bandies about the figure of 52000 as the immigration figure. But on the figures of the New Zealand Immigration Service in this report the number of people we had to bear in 2002 as people living in this country in any one year—and next year up it will go again—was 190000. Of those 63500 were admitted under temporary work policies 73800 were admitted on student visas and permits and the balance was in the immigrant category. There are more people coming into New Zealand outside the immigrant category than there are within the immigrant category. They tend to stay here and as the report states they are hardly here. 
The next section of the report states that in the year ended 30th June 2002 for example: “Almost two-thirds of New Zealand’s approvals for residence were granted to people who applied while they were in New Zealand”—part of this another 140000—“on temporary work or student visas and permits.” 
Of course on top of all of this we will have people invited here. If one starts inviting people to New Zealand does one get a little card? How does it happen? “The Honourable Minister Lianne Dalziel hereby invites you to come to New Zealand.” How do these people get chosen? Well those were the Minister’s words and those were United Future’s words. These people will be invited to New Zealand. How does it work? It is wide open to corruption. The numbers that we are concerned about are still going up. There is no suggestion on the Minister’s part that the numbers will decrease. 
We have seen from the recent Business and Economic Research Ltd report and in particular from the regional dimension—and I speak as an Auckland list member of Parliament who stood in Helensville and who has had 9 years as a constituency MP—that the regional dimension of the impact of immigrants is overwhelmingly dominated by the impact on Auckland defined as the four territorial local authorities. The overseas border counts for 34 percent of Auckland’s resident population compared with 20 percent for the whole of New Zealand. Auckland has to bear the brunt of all these immigrants. When I came back to Wellington last year and walked down Lambton Quay I felt that very little had changed. It was much the same Lambton Quay as it was in 1984. I invite those people who are in Wellington to come to Auckland and walk up and down Queen Street and they will certainly get a different view of Auckland from what it was in 1984. 
The problem is that so many people are being let into the country and they come here not knowing that they will have to face criticism. They have to bear the responsibility and blame for the excessive problems of motorways. I see that the Labour Government and its supporter Transit New Zealand has cut the grant for motorways in Auckland. The region has gone down in the list from where it was before and only three of the top 10 projects in Auckland will be worked on. We have seen a roading cut in Auckland despite the fact that immigrants overwhelmingly dominate the Auckland area. We saw on tonight’s television programme the effects of overcrowding and delays in the hospital system. In Auckland we see a never-ending delay for State houses and we get complaints that all the waiting lists are dominated by immigrants. That is very unfair on immigrants. These are people who effectively are invited here as one might say in a broad way. They come to New Zealand and then find they are blamed by political parties for the vast problems they create but these problems can be laid at the feet of this Labour Minister of Immigration. We oppose this bill.