I am writing directly because otherwise we cannot trust that New Zealanders will ever hear the full substance of what we are proposing.
Our policies get condensed into headlines and announcements become stories about how whingers react to them. Sensible common sense policies that most New Zealanders agree with are treated as controversies, or reframed into what somebody else says we really meant. Sometimes the detail barely gets a look in at all.
So rather than rely on someone else to interpret New Zealand First’s position for you, I want to explain it directly.
The idea connecting much of what we are proposing at this election is clear. It is that New Zealand should control its own future.
These are complex and challenging times. We cannot afford to give the reins to student politicians and those who have already shown their willingness to vandalise our future. New Zealand needs experience, and through experience, good judgement that protects New Zealand’s vital interests first and foremost.
New Zealand First takes the world as it is, not as some cloistered postmodern lecturer or dancing green TikToker wants it to be. With experience comes prudence, common sense, and the understanding that sometimes we have to make hard decisions. And with enough New Zealand First MPs comes the power to decide our own future, instead of having it decided for us.
The economy is not where it should be. Kiwis know that without being told. We said at the last election that the damage done by the previous Labour Government could not be undone in three years. We were right. There is growth happening, but not nearly as much as we need.
We inherited a disaster of massive over-borrowing, and spending not on production, not on wealth creation, not on employment, and not on exports, but purely on consumption. We are all paying the price for Labour’s decisions now.
The sad truth about New Zealand over the past fifty years is that we went from the top tier in the world to a non-competing economy. In 1984 came the neoliberal experiment of Labour’s Roger Douglas followed by the austerity of National’s Ruth Richardson. The left and the right went on to sell our assets, privatise our country, and open our borders to mass immigration. Forty years down the track we can see it has been an abject failure.
Only one party never subscribed to that ideology. New Zealand First was formed because we opposed it. We have always believed in economic nationalism. The radical notion that we own our country’s assets and we should use them to our benefit.
We believe in targeted government intervention and giving a hand up in times of need. We support capitalism with a human face and a spirit of solidarity.
New Zealand is a sovereign nation and we resist anyone who seeks to undermine that by increasing our dependence on external powers. It is time to tear up globalist agreements that exist to extract billions from New Zealanders for emissions that are a wisp of smoke compared to the industrial scale deluge from the likes of China, India, and the United States.
We are too dependent on volatile markets and supply chains that we have seen severely tested in recent years. New Zealand First’s vision is one of economic independence. But that kind of future requires keeping the maniacal activists away from the levers of power. We cannot afford to have our future in the hands of ideological fools who would snitch on their own country to impress Greta Thunberg.
We need adults in the room with enough of a backbone to say “actually we are going to use our own resources” just like other countries do. This term of government Shane Jones has relentlessly resisted the pearl clutching of other parties. He has had to battle the activists on the other side of Parliament who would shut down industries and projects with the potential to provide Kiwi workers with high wages because virtue signalling is more important.
New Zealand First says we can take control of our own future. We can make the most of our resources, build sovereign wealth, and ensure that ours is a country that works for its people.
This brings me to the main reason I am writing to you directly. It turns out our national media outlets have decided to ignore New Zealand First’s immigration policies.They are the first to jump on the slightest negativity, but when we lay out a comprehensive policy they suddenly go dumb, deaf, and blind.
I do not intend to leave it to editors, commentators, or our political opponents to tell you what New Zealand First believes. I would rather tell you directly, set out the policy plainly, and let you judge it for yourself.
The commentators have microphones, newspapers and television studios. We have to pay to communicate directly with voters.
First and foremost, we must have the discipline and sense to control our borders and ensure that those we let into this country are here to fill gaps in our workforces and are willing to respect our values and way of life.
Immigration is where the principle of sovereignty is truly tested.
How many times has New Zealand First been attacked as “xenophobic” and “racist” for asserting that New Zealand has a culture worth protecting?
Look around the world. There are plenty of examples of what we do not want our country to become. But instead of appreciating what we have and being patriots for New Zealand, those in green and red seem to hate everything we stand for.
They are oikophobes, fetishising everyone else’s cultures, wearing their flags, shouting their chants, while loathing the free and just democracy they were lucky enough to inherit.
Around 30% of current New Zealand residents were not even born here. Thirty years ago it was 17%. If we carry on this trajectory, by our grandchildren’s generation that could well be more than half.
This is a system that is out of control and worst of all, many of the political class have no desire to wrangle it back.
The fact is, in the past four years we have seen a net increase of 165,000 new migrants. Under Labour’s final year of government alone they let in 131,000 net. When we were in government in 2017, we ensured immigration was cut back, but when we were out, and Labour was left to their own devices the foot came off the brake.
National and ACT said absolutely nothing either. One is too scared of being called “racist” in the newspapers and the other only sees demands from some businesses for cheap labour to undercut our own workforce.
As it says in the good book: by their deeds you will know them.
We need immigration. Don’t let any biased columnist tell you that New Zealand First is anti-immigration because we are not. It has been an essential part of our history and we are all descendent from people who decided to venture here for opportunity.
But immigration must be smart and controlled. Allowing in immigrants we need, not people who need us. The Kiwi dream belongs to Kiwis who have worked hard for this country, invested time, sweat and pride, and share in our history. It is not for just anybody who arrives for five minutes and claims what we have built for their convenience.
For decades you have heard other politicians here and abroad parroting that “diversity is our greatest strength.” That is false. Unity is our strength. Diversity, without a common purpose, is weakness and division. We do not have to all be the same and have the same story, but we do need to be pulling in the same direction.
That is why we have announced the most serious immigration reform in a generation.
Whatever your view of these proposals ultimately is, you should at least know what New Zealand First is actually proposing before somebody else tells you what to think about it.
So here it is, plainly and without the filter.
This is what New Zealand First is proposing on immigration:
- Only the children of citizens will automatically receive citizenship at birth.
- Citizenship can only be applied for after ten years, not five.
- Permanent residence after five years, not two.
- There will be higher fees that reflect the value of what is being granted.
- A ten year welfare stand-down for non-citizens.
- Social housing for citizens first.
- Wider deportation powers.
- Automatic deportation for violent and sexual crimes, fraud, organised crime, money laundering and migrant exploitation.
- A referendum on a 20,000 resident-visa cap.
- A 30 year population plan.
- Student visa holders who want another visa must leave and apply from abroad.
- No automatic work rights that take jobs off Kiwis.
- Establish protected person status that is temporary by design.
- No asylum claims will be able to be applied for from a work visa.
- No using temporary work rights as a stepping stone.
- A 24-month window for all overstayers to leave, if they are found after that period they will be deported and banned from reentry.
- For Pacific overstayers only, there will be a 24-month clemency to legally apply for a valid visa to remain, if they are found after that period they will be deported and banned from reentry.
- And a New Zealand First Minister holding the Immigration portfolio.
Without a New Zealand First Immigration Minister, this vision for taking control of our future is just fantasy. National and ACT need New Zealand First to save them from their own instincts.
Because we actually do have the right to determine the future size and character of our country. New Zealand citizenship is a privilege, not a right.
So there you have it. The policy that taxpayer-owned TVNZ has refused to report. Not one story. Not one article.
We are the only socially conservative party and they do not like it. The only nationalist party and they do not like it. The only patriotic party, a word now so often criticised. We stand proud to be patriots of New Zealand. Most important, we are the only party that can counter-balance the present spectrum of extremists in Parliament.
We have won many battles. The war is not yet over.
Believe me when I tell you that we in New Zealand First do not think we are just running in another election. We understand that we are running to save our country economically and socially from extremists.
To do that we need many more New Zealand First MPs. Many, many more.
So do not give us a microlight and then ask us to fly to the moon. If you give us the tools, we will finish the job. Donate Now.
That means organisation, halls, printing, travel, and the means to put our case when the official channels will not.
We rely on New Zealanders like you who still believe this country is worth defending.
True democracy is a rare flower in the history of humanity. We inherited a free country that our forebears fought and died for. It is our job to preserve it. We must never stop believing in New Zealand.
Protect. Save. Restore. Put New Zealand and New Zealanders first.
We are asking you to join us, and Party Vote New Zealand First.
Winston Peters
Leader, New Zealand First