The Alliance Party says Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
must sack Winston Peters as Minister of Foreign
Affairs.
Alliance Party candidate for Wellington North
Josh Harford says that Mr. Peters’ recent comments
directed at fellow MP Lawrence Xu–Nan were racist,
harmful, and have brought New Zealand into disrepute
abroad.
He says they are a disturbing new escalation
in Mr Peters cynical and decades-long xenophobic campaign
which has fomented social divisions and tensions in
Aotearoa.
“As a child of Asian immigrants, I have
grown up seeing my community vilified by the likes of Mr.
Peters. His incoherent and bigoted rhetoric is harmful and
dangerous for the thousands of hard-working immigrants who
improve our nation every day.”
“Immigrants staff
our hospitals and build our homes. Immigrants to Aotearoa
contribute to our communities and ought to be
celebrated.”
Mr. Harford says the problem does not
stop with Mr. Peters.
“The Prime Minister’s
expression of confidence in Mr Peters shows these attitudes
are acceptable to the Government in practice, whatever they
say.”
Mr Harford recalls the words of the late Hon.
Jim Anderton MP in 2002.
Mr Anderton said that New
Zealand had been “built by immigrants from all over the
world, based on a strong sense of fair play.”
“New
Zealand is a much better society than New Zealand First’s
attacks on immigrant citizens portray it,” said Mr
Anderton at the time.
Mr Harford says those words ring
even more true today.
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The Alliance says it is
untenable for Mr. Peters to retain a post in cabinet,
especially as Foreign Minister, whilst abusing a fellow New
Zealand citizen and MP.
The Alliance is calling for
all decent-minded representatives and parties to unite in
rejecting Mr Peters vicious attacks, and to work together to
remove him from Government and any position where he
represents New Zealand
internationally.
