New Zealand Immigrants Must Speak English If They Are To Succeed-Peters

“The recent announcement of the Minister of Immigration, Hon Lianne Dalziel that approval for an additional 10,000 immigrants to New Zealand is to be given, and that the current English language requirements are to be reduced, is a silly move said New Zealand First Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters today.

He was relaying concerns being expressed by those within the immigration placement and education industry, who suggest that the requirement to speak English is elementary to the needs of immigrants if they are to be speedily and successfully integrated into New Zealand industry and our way of life.

“ There is now a growing number of immigrants in New Zealand with degrees and postgraduate diplomas who can’t get a job within their chosen field of expertise because their English is not good enough and are receiving the unemployment benefit, he said. This is a gross waste of education and skill base and does nothing at all to assist New Zealand, or our economy, or the self-esteem and worth of the individuals concerned.

“If anything, Mr Peters suggested, Government should be loosening the requirements for academic qualifications and increasing the English language skills requirements in order to ensure the skill base being imported is able to be put to immediate use, advantageous to the individual concerned, and New
Zealand.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>