Off-The-Wall and Typical of Peter Dunne

ACT leader Richard Prebble said today that Peter Dunne's call for the population of New Zealand to increase by 1 million in just 12 years is silly even by his standards and his claim that New Zealand needs a policy that is well planned belies his lethargy as Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee.

"That committee has a petition signed by 25% of all new New Zealanders of Chinese descent and yet he refuses to even schedule a hearing on his ally the Labour Party's changes to the immigration policy. "Even a few minutes thought by Mr Dunne would show that his proposed target is completely nuts.

"To increase the population by a million would require inward migration of 1.7 million. Despite inward migration by non-New Zealanders of over 300,000 net in the last decade, net migration only added 116,000 to the total population because over 200,000 net New Zealand citizens left permanently.

"As Mr Dunne is chairman of the Select Committee that has supervision over the country's immigration policy, and he is the leader of the United Party that is propping up the minority Labour Government, it should be a matter of concern for thinking New Zealanders that he clearly knows nothing about the subject.

"The sheer hypocrisy of the man who has been asked by ACT three times in Parliament to schedule hearings into immigration which he claims he is too busy to do, but he is still prepared to put out a slogan-for-policy press statement on the issue.

"Immigration is a very serious issue which deserves more than Mr Dunne's sloganising on the one hand - and Mr Peters' xenophobic ravings on the other," said Mr Prebble.

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