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Anti-Asian party takes hold in New
Zealand
By Bob Burton
CANBERRA - With opinion polls showing that a
majority of New Zealand voters are concerned about
immigration from Asia, an anti-immigration, anti-Asian
party called New Zealand First has emerged to take seats
in parliament.
In his final election rally ahead
of the July 27 poll, the leader of New Zealand First,
Maori-born Winston Peters declared that one of the
"fundamental rights of ordinary Kiwis [New Zealanders]"
is "the right to stop being swamped by a flood of
immigrants".
Peters' New Zealand First surged in
the last two weeks of the election campaign to poll over
10 percent of the vote and win 13 seats under the
proportional electoral system.
"[Older citizens]
look at one thing and that is immigration - and the face
of New Zealand is changing with a lot more Asian people
arriving," said Tim Bale, a senior lecturer in political
science at Victoria University. One clear message from
the just-finished poll is that Peters has carved out a
political niche among older New Zealanders, who fear
their country is degrading into something
unrecognizable, Bale said.
Professor Richard
Bedford, of Waikato University's Population Studies
Center, argues that it is in fact foreign students who
account for most of the increase in Asians in New
Zealand. "A significant component of people of Asian
ethnicity are students in New Zealand's burgeoning
international education industry. The biggest increase
in the Asian population in Mr Peters' electorate has
come from marketing education opportunities," he wrote
in a column in the New Zealand Herald this week.
Peters proposes that the number of new people
approved by the government to reside in the country of 4
million people be cut from the current 50,000 per year
to only 10,000 - a figure so low New Zealand's
population would decline once more.
Peters
rejects the accusation that he plays the race card for
electoral advantage. However, in a televised debate
during the election campaign, Peters reacted when the
editor of a regional newspaper, the Southland Times,
suggested that the local community was short of workers
and might welcome immigrants. "So you want a bunch of
people from Bangladesh and India to come down here? I
don't think so. Ask your people on the streets of
Southland,'' Peters said.
Still, Peters has the
remarkable ability to bridge constituencies that would
normally be considered to be polarized by his railing
against both immigration and the "Maori industry", says
Jane Kelsey, a commentator on New Zealand politics and
professor of law at Auckland University. "Winston
[Peters] knows what trigger points to push, particularly
with the elderly. There is a real paradox that whilst
much of Winston's rhetoric is racist, though he dresses
it up in ways that he claims aren't racist, it has some
appeal to Maori voters as well," Kelsey said.
Bale adds: "Peters is able to bridge in some
senses what appears to be chasms between constituencies
because of his charisma." Peters rhetorically asked in a
speech last week, "How will ordinary Kiwis or their
children benefit from the cheap labor economy that mass
immigration is creating? How is forging our national
identity served by a mass influx of immigrants?". He
added that "Ordinary Kiwis understand the security
threat posed by free and easy immigration." Peters has
not confined his criticism to immigration. He rails
against the implementation of the Treaty of Waitangi,
which was signed in 1840 between British settlers and
the indigenous Maori community. "The treaty industry
that thrives on fomenting division and separatism is one
of the forces that are undermining, fragmenting and
eroding the social cohesion of our society," Peters
argues.
Peters' party is one that Prime Minister
Helen Clark - whose Labor Party gained only 41 percent
of the vote in the election and won 52 of 120 seats in
the single house of parliament - has ruled out of
discussions to form a minority government. "For me, the
only ugly note that was really struck in this election
campaign is from those who tried to divide New Zealander
against New Zealander," Clark said. "Labor won't stand
for that." Clark has commenced negotiations with a
number of other minor parties to form a minority
government.
Whether Peters can manage the spoils
of his success remains to be seen. But Bale thinks
Peters may well be able to maintain his new power base.
"It might well be possible for him to keep these issues
boiling over the next three years, [and] he probably
could still push it further ... For a number of people,
cultural diversity is scary and the Labor and National
parties have got to realize that and admit to it without
pandering to it."
(Inter Press
Service)
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