Source: Radio New Zealand
The Prime Minister says comments from Shane Jones warning of a “butter chicken tsunami” coming to New Zealand after the signing of the free trade agreement with India are unhelpful – but stopped short of saying whether he thought they were racist.
New Zealand First does not support the India FTA, meaning National needs Labour’s support to pass it through the House.
In a video circulating online, the New Zealand First deputy leader said his party would “never accept” the FTA, and that “unfettered immigration” would drive down the value of wages, clog up roads, and overwhelm the health system.
“I don’t care how much criticism we get. I am just never going to agree with a butter chicken tsunami coming to New Zealand,” Jones said.
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
At his post Cabinet media conference on Monday, Christopher Luxon said he had not seen Jones’ comments, but thought they were a “gross misrepresentation” of what the FTA was about.
“I don’t know. I’m just saying the immigration story that they are scaremongering around is absolutely false. We have taken them through the data, we have taken them through the details of that deal. We’ll continue to do so, because we would love them to rethink their position,” Luxon said.
“I appreciate they’ve got a pretty hard no against anything around free trade agreements. I just think that makes New Zealand poorer.”
Pushed on whether he thought Jones’ comments were racist, Luxon said it “doesn’t sound right,” and it was “alarmist” and “unhelpful” language.
“You can call it racist, you know, the colourful language from Shane Jones, we’re used to Shane Jones doing lots of oratorial flourishes as he is prone to do. But the bottom line for me is he’s wrong. There is not going to be an influx of immigration. This deal is well thought through.”
Luxon said he appreciated New Zealand First had its own position on the FTA, but that the position was “frankly wrong”.
“It creates huge opportunity for people that I would have thought New Zealand First would have cared about. Foresters, aquaculture, our farmers, our horticulturalists. This is a great deal.”
Standing next to Luxon, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said the comments were “not helpful.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
