Goddamnit, that Turia woman is at it again. If giving Tongans the Maori vote and encouraging teenage pregnancy wasn't enough, now she's wanting to cap 'Westerners' (Hat tip I/S). Although I disagree with many of Hone Harawira's goals, I admire his honest bloke attitude as well as that good hit he scored on Shane Jones in Eye to Eye with Willie Jackson last year. But for every step Pita Sharples does to sustain my interest in his cause, Tariana Turia negates it all with comments that Alamein Kopu could have uttered. Putting a limit on 'Westerner' immigration is nutty on so many fronts, it looks like a scorched almond. Turia may favour brown and yellow people first, but personally I reckon New Zealand needs more Brazilians.
The United States economy is built on immigration. Slavery and illegal immigrant labour. Post-war Oz was the same, only politer about it. In both countries, the infrastructure was built by these same immigrants. Of course, cheap labour is not the big thing holding back our infrastructural make-over. That honour belongs to the RMA, OSH and EIEIO (Every Idiotic Extortion I Omitted). Imagine getting the Suez Canal project through RMA consent. There's not enough lawyers. The Eiffel Tower, once OSH considerations had been taken into account, would look like the Pentagon and cost twice as much to maintain.
The 1990's boom, in Orkland at least, was fuelled by the Asian invasion bringing copious amounts of money into the economy. Sky City for one would be screwed without immigration. Without immigration, we could not replenish our middle classes. I don't care if they're brown, yellow, olive, black, white, albino or ginger. You a doctor? Get stuck in mate.
Say Professor Stephen Hawking decided to retire to NZ but our quota was chocka. "Fuck off, Professor Hawking. We don't want your kind here." No, Tariana, you fuck off.
