Winston Peters immigration comments labelled ‘divisive rhetoric', ‘cynical politicking'
The Greens' immigration spokesman Ricardo Menendez March said Peters' 'tired, decades-old playbook of blaming migrants' was a 'distraction' from other actions the coalition Government had taken, such as changes to pay equity rules and tightening emergency housing settings, which critics argue has led to an increase in homelessness.
'We aren't waiting for [Prime Minister Christopher] Luxon to show leadership and shut down this divisive rhetoric, which is why we are fighting to create 40,000 new jobs through a Greens Job Guarantee, build enough public housing and restore pay equity claims,' the Green MP told the Herald.
'We will also ensure every migrant worker is treated with respect and is free from exploitation.'
The Greens' Ricardo Menéndez March was critical of the comments. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Phil Twyford from Labour told Newstalk ZB it was 'cynical politicking' by Peters.
'Instead of focusing on the things that I think are important to New Zealanders, like the cost of living, they are resorting to imported culture wars that, frankly, New Zealand just doesn't need,' Twyford said.
While he said there was always more to be done to improve the system, Twyford said New Zealand 'is completely reliant on immigration for our economy to work and for our society to work'.
'Migrants make a hugely positive contribution to this country. They enrich our communities. It's not helpful for politicians, for their own political purposes, to be trying to divide the community and turn one group of people against another.'
Luxon on Sunday said it was important immigration was linked to 'our economic agenda and our ability to support immigration with good infrastructure'.
'Those are the three things that have to come together for any country, and certainly here in New Zealand as well,' the Prime Minister said.
'We have accelerated pathways for residency through the Green List for when we have got job shortages that we desperately need to get into our communities.'
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said immigration needed to be linked to the country's economic agenda. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Peters told the Herald NZ First believed immigration should not be used as an 'excuse for our failure to train, skill and employ our own people'.
That was one of the party's founding principles 32 years ago and remained 'as much a principle now as it was back then', Peters said.
'We, like wise countries, have always believed we should be training and employing our own people first and not use immigration as an excuse not to do that. That is still our plan.'
He said New Zealand still didn't have strong enough initiatives to 'take people from secondary school into employment' and stressed the need for appropriate infrastructure to be in place to support migrants.
'There was a time when we were getting people from around the world putting down £10 to get here. They were coming to a job and a house and infrastructure, schooling, everything. Teachers and doctors and all sorts of people were coming here.'
In the year to May 2025, there was a net migration gain of 15,000, driven by 140,000 arrivals and offset by 125,000 departures.
The number of arrivals is down from a peak of roughly 235,000 in late 2023, but still above the long-term average of 119,000. However, due to the large number of departures, the net gain is below the average of nearly 28,000.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. In 2025, he was a finalist for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
13 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Will the government's changes bring down building costs?
Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk said the change would have the potential to reduce total building costs by thousands of dollars. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Opposition parties say while the devil will be in the details on the government's latest building products changes, they support in principle what looks like a "sensible" change. But Labour and the Greens are also criticising the coalition's cancellation of hundreds of construction projects, saying that is what has led to a downturn in the industry. They also say delaying changes to the Building Code will mean New Zealand lags behind the rest of the world. The government on Sunday announced it would be releasing a list of overseas certification schemes that would automatically qualify products for use in New Zealand . Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk said the list would "have the potential to reduce total building costs by thousands of dollars when building a home". "There are thousands of well-made, high performing products that have been tested against rigourous international standards but have faced barriers for uptake here, purely because they have not been specifically tested against our own standards. From tomorrow it will be much easier to use plasterboard manufactured in New Zealand, Australia, UK, Europe and the United States," he said. "This is just the beginning of our work to open the door to more building products, lower the cost of homes and turbo charge the construction sector and there will be more to come." He also announced a pause on "any new major changes to the Building Code system" and shifting instead to a "predictable three-year cycle for Building Code system updates". "This new approach will give businesses the clarity they need to prepare in advance, rather than constantly having to react to unexpected rule changes." The government will be releasing releasing a list of overseas certification schemes that would automatically qualify products for use in New Zealand. Photo: 123RF ACT's Building and Construction spokesperson Cameron Luxton was a builder in 2022 during the plasterboard crisis that saw some builders paying six times the standard price for 'GIB' branded plasterboard. "I had designers trying to get changes to the existing consents so that we could use other types of wall lining ... if we could have recognized overseas plaster boards and the components around their systems, we would have been able to get things built in New Zealand a lot easier and a lot quicker during that time," he said. "Those crazy days of the post-Covid building construction boom with us at the moment but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be focusing on getting the price of all building down." ACT's Building and Construction spokesperson Cameron Luxton Photo: VNP / Phil Smith He said the government's approach was almost exactly the same as what ACT campaigned on. "What we campaigned on was a recognised list of products. The bill came into the house as that, it's been through select committee, we've come out the other side with it being schemes, standards and products. "Minister Penk has done an incredibly good job engaging with the industry and making sure that this bill works - it's so close to ACT's you couldn't find much air between our original policy and this one, it's the same principle, called some different things." Both Labour and the Greens supported the bill through the legislative process. Labour's Building and Construction spokesperson Arena Williams said it was likely to make it easier for building products to get into the New Zealand market, and increase competition - but that doing so was one of the recommendations of the Commerce Commission study launched under Labour. "We think this is an important step, but the government has talked a big game on lowering the cost of building because that's an excuse for absolutely collapsing the building and construction sector and seeing 17,000 jobs lost since the day of the election." She pointed to a range of projects that had been cut - Kāinga Ora public housing, school builds, the downgrading of hospital builds - saying that had directly led to those jobs being lost. Labour's Building and Construction spokesperson Arena Williams. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith The minister was now admitting the solution would not be a silver bullet for the sector, she said. "Now they're saying this will only be part of the solution and it won't do everything that's needed to bring costs down ... they have no answer for a building and construction sector that's on its knees, it's slumped lower than it did in the global financial crisis, and we're seeing thousands of young Kiwi builders going offshore." Announcing the change without releasing the detail until the next day was "an unusual way to do things," she said. Williams said she planed to carefully examine the standards when made public, to ensure they were sensible. Green Party Building and Construction spokesperson Julie Anne Genter took her criticism of the approach further. "We see every week pretty much announcements on a Sunday don't have any substantive new actions or information, and in the last few weeks, it's been related to the building sector or infrastructure, because the government is desperate to turn around the narrative. "This is very much a government that is focused on PR spend more than substance." She said the changes themselves "could be great or it could be terrible, depending on which building products and which licensing schemes they're looking at". "The devil will be in the detail. The detail hasn't yet been released. But I really can say that the government has put the construction sector in a terrible position by cancelling hundreds of projects related to public homes, which we need now more than ever. I saw last month, one third of company liquidations for construction firms, and that was up on last year." She criticised the pause on Building Code changes. "That is a huge lost opportunity. The previous government had a work programme on building for climate change and it was going to address a lot of the issues that we have in terms of energy efficiency, resilience," she said. "The certainty is we're not moving forward with our Building Code, they're providing the certainty that we're going to lag behind most other countries and have a much longer period before we have sustainable, healthy buildings." "Ultimately, this is not enough to help New Zealand with the problems we're facing when they've cancelled so many public home builds." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Newsroom
an hour ago
- Newsroom
The carbon market is on course to collapse in the 2030s
Analysis: The Government has made the Emissions Trading Scheme the centrepiece of its climate strategy, but has said nothing about what it will do to prevent the carbon market from crashing out in just over a decade. Warnings about the ETS running out of runway in the 2030s are not new, having first been raised by the Climate Change Commission in draft advice in early 2022, but they have taken on added gravity due to the coalition Government's heavy reliance on the scheme to meet its climate targets.
NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
How outgoing Whanganui council boss David Langford reflects on his tenure
'In the words of Leslie Knope from (NBC sitcom) Parks and Recreation, when they shout at me, it's just them caring really loudly.' Langford said the past five years for local government had been intense, mostly due to the amount of change imposed on the sector, such as Three Waters and Local Water Done Well reforms and the Government's plans to replace the Resource Management Act and Building Control Authority. 'Councils that come out the other side are going to look very different, and they are going to have to figure out their purpose and role in supporting the community,' he said. 'As New Zealand, we are one of the most centralised systems of government in the whole of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 'Our Government spends 93% of all taxes, and I think the average across most high income countries is more like a 70 (central) 30 (local) split.' He said Government conversations around rates capping and focusing on the basics sounded good, but 'what does that mean?'. 'Almost all our rates' money is spent on core services already, and the bits that aren't are the bits people really care about and fought to keep. 'We fund the Christmas Parade, and give $100,000 a year to surf lifesaving to help them patrol the beaches and keep our kids safe. That's not core services. 'If we put caps on rates, these are the things that will get hit.' The council achieved an average 2.2% rates rise for 2025/26, the lowest in the country. David Langford (left) with Sarjeant Gallery director Andrew Clifford. That was the culmination of the past 3.5 years of work, he said. 'The foundations we've laid here are going to serve the community well. 'Whoever comes in to replace me will like some things I've done and change some of them as well, but, hopefully, they'll keep the momentum going.' Langford said he would be disappointed if the district did not have the lowest rates increase next year as well, while still increasing investment in core infrastructure. There was an 11% increase in the council's infrastructure spend for 2025/26. A major part of the council's role was 'building things', whether it be fixing potholes or putting pipes in the ground, he said. 'There are a lot of armchair engineers out there, but it comes with the territory. 'Anybody who's watched an episode of Bob The Builder thinks they know how to do my job better than I do. 'Like I said before, if you're not up for the criticism, and you're not prepared to rise above it, this job is not for you.' Langford said challenges still lay ahead, such as the future of the NZ International Commercial Pilot Academy. The facility is under investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority, although four planes have returned to service. 'It delivers around $10 million of GDP into our economy, but the goal was also to get a business paying landing fees at the airport, so the ratepayer doesn't have to subsidise it as much. 'The intention was always to get it set up as an investment, and once it's running, sell it. 'Now's the time to hand it over to the private sector, but make sure we keep those benefits.' He said his proudest achievements was forming a citizens' assembly - 'a bold move' - to tackle the future of outdoor swimming in the district, including the Whanganui East pool. The assembly presented two recommendations at a council meeting this month, although the issue was left on the table until August 12. 'There's a heap of lessons we've learned and when council does the next one, it'll be a bit slicker and even better,' Langford said. 'For me, it was seeing the community step up and make the most of the opportunity, and really get engaged with an issue they care about.' Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
