Citizenship Not For Sale Says Peters

New Zealand First says the Government is moving slowly in the right direction over removing automatic citizenship rights for children born to parents who are not permanent residents or citizens of this country.

This follows Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins confirming that an amendment will be added to the Identity Citizenship and Travel Documents Bill, which is now before a select committee.

Rt Hon Winston Peters says at present the rules are far too lax and mean that citizenship can be conferred on any child born in New Zealand – even if the mother heads back overseas to live.

“We believe the rules should be tightened further so that citizenship can be granted only when at least one of the parents is a New Zealand citizen.

“This means the parent has made a serious commitment to New Zealand, and has made a conscious decision to bring up the child as a New Zealand citizen,” said Mr Peters.

He also says there should be a strict probationary period for all new immigrants before they can be granted residency or citizenship.

“If anyone offends or causes trouble during the qualifying period they should simply be sent home. We have enough problem people of our own without importing them from other countries,” said Mr Peters.

© Scoop Media