National exposes Government u-turn on immigration

The National Party’s accusing the Prime Minister of hypocrisy after catching her out on changes to the immigration laws.

“It’s now patently clear that the only reason the Labour Government’s tightening up the English tests for migrants is a knee jerk response to the xenophobic comments from Winston Peters,” says National’s Gerry Brownlee.

“And now we’ve found the proof,” says National’s Ethnic Affairs spokeswoman Pansy Wong.

“Just this year the Prime Minister criticised the previous Government’s criteria on English testing saying it had had an adverse impact on migration flows,” says Mr Brownlee.

On February 13 last year Helen Clark said “we have also eased the English language testing requirement to make New Zealand a more attractive destination for migrants.”

“Not much has changed since then, except the ravings of Mr Peters which now border on hysterical,” Pansy Wong says

“Many of the examples quoted by Mr Peters relate to refugees coming into this country, not legitimate migrants,” Mr Brownlee says.

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