Winston Peters not putting New Zealand first (or First)

A former New Zealand First M.P., the late Richard Prosser once told me that Winston Peters is New Zealand First’s biggest asset…

And biggest liability.

The recent attacks by New Zealand First on immigrants are not only hugely toxic, they are also immensely hypocritical. The attacks ignore some very basic facts about New Zealand First – namely it too has had a number of immigrant Members of Parliament since it first returned to Parliament in 2011. Asenati Lole-Taylor from Samoa and Mahesh Bindra from India are two examples. Both held fairly high list rankings during their time in Parliament.

On top of that, the attacks are a kind of brazen anti-immigrant contempt that is wholly unbecoming of a New Zealand M.P., let alone the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Immigrants have contributed immensely to New Zealand politics, bringing a flavour and experiences that a mono-ethnic Parliament simply cannot come by, and Parliament becomes a richer place for having it.

But there is another problem. I never thought I would see a New Zealand M.P. so openly brazenly telling another sitting M.P. to go back to the country that they came from. All M.P.’s should be above this kind of behaviour. The fact that this came from the most senior M.P. in the House of Representatives, and was doubled down on when the Chinese Ambassador made an astute observation yesterday.

Sadly – but not surprisingly – the xenophobes, including blogger Cameron Slater have risen to the defence of Mr Peters. His party is tracking strongly in the polls, which is rather unfortunate for one that has completely forgotten its origins as a respectable moderate party. It reminds me of a time when another New Zealand First M.P., the then Deputy Peter Brown stood up in Parliament during debate one day and said “there are too many Asians in New Zealand”. Mr Brown, and the rest of the Party were ejected by voters a few months later.

Do I have problems about how we permit large numbers of low/non-skilled migrants to come here and do jobs that New Zealanders will not? Yes.

But the causes, the concerns they raise, and the fixes are quite different to brazenly telling a sitting M.P. who is not New Zealand in origin to go back to his country. This is simply a xenophobic old man, who should have retired in 2020 when his party was evicted from Parliament a second time, undoing any good reputation that New Zealand First ever held among non-New Zealand immigrants.

This kind of poisonous politicking does not put New Zealand first. Nor is it putting the well being of New Zealand First. As a former member I think there will come a time soon when voters will get put off by the anti-immigration vomit spewing from Mr Peters and his deputy Shane Jones, which will register in the polls. For the sake of putting New Zealand first and New Zealand First, I hope this tough love comes sooner rather than later.

Below is a partial list of sitting M.P.’s who are not from New Zealand. I thank each of them for what they bring to the New Zealand Parliament.

• Priyanca Radhakrishnan (Labour; India)
• Nancy Lu (National; China)
• Rima Nakhle (National; Australia)
• Laurence Xu-Nan (Green; China)
• Melissa Lee (National; South Korea
• Ricardo Menendez March (Green; Mexico)
• Paulo Garcia (National; Philippines)
• Carlos Cheung (National; China)
• Parmjeet Parmar (A.C.T.; India)