9 June 2004

Wellington Immigration Plan Senseless - Peters

Rt Hon Winston Peters has questioned the plans of four councils in the Wellington region to actively try to attract immigrants when the Auckland experience has shown that mass immigration has serious consequences.

This follows Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kapiti considering using $200,000 of ratepayers’ money each year to attract new migrants and brand the province “new settler friendly”.

“There are already plenty of examples around the Wellington region of bringing in immigrants who have no jobs to go to and these councils have no mandate to spend ratepayers’ money to create more social problems.

“These councils should concentrate on providing basic services for their ratepayers and residents. For example, it is hard to see how bringing in another flood of immigrants will improve the footpaths and street lights in Porirua where ratepayers pay some of the highest rates in New Zealand.

“My suggestion to these councils is to work on giving value for money to the people who pay their bills and to forget about importing immigrants.

“Ratepayers are generally sick of paying for expensive local council power trips while services are neglected,” said Mr Peters.

ENDS

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