“[Leader of the Opposition] Mr Little said last week that New Zealand typically saw 25,000 people enter the country in net migration and Labour wanted to “target that sort of level”.

“Recent figures showed that a net 71,333 people settled here in the year to February.

“But speaking to Morning Report today, Mr Little denied he wanted to cut immigration numbers by as much as 50,000.”

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NZ First leader Winston Peters says he wants net immigration limited to 10,000 a year — and as he has been in the past, he could be the Kingmaker in this year’s parliamentary elections.

The country’s continual population growth since the early 2000s has been one of the two factors in the steady growth in house prices, in Auckland particularly, but also in the Wellington area.  Foreign investors, particularly Chinese, have been the other factor.

In Kapiti, the assumption of a steady increase in population has been behind Dougherty’s empire building strategy and this was admitted in the Long Term Plan document from 2015.

The ‘Ewy’ has been something of a double-edge sword in that respect, though — it is making Kapiti a dormitory area of Wellington, but the million square meters of land acquired by the central government for it as far as Peka Peka (from there to Otaki adds to it) reduced the amount of land that the council collects rates on. So, the answer is to convert a lot more agricultural land to housing which has a much higher value.

In 2012 this report in the Dominion Post said that: “council forecasts predict Waikanae will continue to outpace the rest of the coast. Over the next 20 years its population is expected to grow 35 to 45 per cent, compared to 20 per cent for Kapiti overall, and it will account for 40 per cent of the district’s growth.”

The expectation was that by 2032 Waikanae will have a population of 15,000.

We said in November 2015: “As can be seen, the Waikanae North and the Maypole company subdivisions are going to add considerably to the existing number of households (about 50%) — if they are allowed to proceed as their businessmen investors want.”   As the council also wants a bigger population for the reason given, these subdivisions are certain to be allowed to proceed, although hopefully this will be with tough restrictions and caveats.

Population growth isn’t pain free: it brings more congestion and a need for more infrastructure and facilities of all kinds.  Do Waikanae people want that?  The Waikanae Beach Residents Association certainly doesn’t like the idea, but it’s what they are in for.