Friday, June 24, 2005



Sheer gall

In his immigration policy launch speech, Winston Peters promised to crack down on immigrants bringing family members into the country, promising DNA testing to ensure that claimed family relationships were genuine. Today in Question Time, NZFirst's Dail Jones asked the following:

Why, then, is a Mr Dean Kenny, a sixth-generation New Zealander and a former Otago, All Black, and New Zealand Mâori player who has returned to New Zealand with his British wife of 8 years and their two children, being put through the third degree by non - New Zealand immigration officials in so far as his wife’s application to stay here is concerned?

In a subsequent question, he provided further clarification:

Why is it that immigrants such as Mr Dean Kenny and his wife have to produce passport documents twice, documents to prove that their children are actually theirs, photos of them holding hands, and numerous other documents to prove that they have been living together in a genuine and stable relationship, and have to wait for 12 months before they get a decision; and does an 8-year Western marriage with two kids not speak for itself?

The sheer gall of this is simply astounding. One moment, NZFirst is demanding stringent checks to prevent migrants from using sham marriages (and sham parental relationships, even) in order to assist others to gain entry; the next they're complaining when such checks (or rather, far weaker ones - were those children DNA tested? I think not) are in fact applied. But I forget: Winston's stringent conditions were never meant to be applied to white people...

5 comments:

Agree in principle. But how is the bloke white when he played for the Maori rugby team?

Mark

Posted by Anonymous : 6/24/2005 08:39:00 AM

I was talking about his wife.

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 6/24/2005 08:47:00 AM

I know, I was being deliberately obtuse. It's too early in the day for me.

Mark

Posted by Anonymous : 6/24/2005 08:59:00 AM

Shouldn't someone be asking "were the same conditions applied to the Muslim gentleman (ex Tampa was it?)who is reputed to have brought in 140 of his alleged 'whanau'?

Posted by Adolf Fiinkensein : 6/24/2005 09:30:00 AM

Do you have a link for that figure, because for some reason I just can't find it anywhere.

According to Winston, between them the "Tampa Boys" have brought in 207 family members between them. But despite Winston's racial paranoia (brown people! Bringing in more brown people! And next they'll be breeding! With themselves!), there's no evidence that any of these people do not have the relationships claimed.

As for consistency, anyone seeking to bring anyone in as a partner must prove that the relationship is genuine. And I don't see why the colour of their skin or their country of origin is relevant to that.

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 6/24/2005 10:33:00 AM