Booze a ‘Kiwi value’

NZ party proposes law to boot out immigrants who don’t abide

A NEW Zealand political party’s members have proposed a law booting out immigrants and refugees if they don’t adhere to “New Zealand values”, which they say include respecting the legality of alcohol.

But the Prime Minister has stepped in to pour cold water on the suggestion.

The membership of the populist NZ First party – a part of the country’s governing coalition – has voted to ask its MPs to introduce a Bill that would legally require migrants to respect gender equality, sexual preferences, religious rights and legal booze, or be sent “back where they came from”.

MP Clayton Mitchell told members the “Respecting New Zealand Values” Bill was about “being intolerant of intolerance”, while some of those attending told Radio NZ many coming into the country “were not really New Zealanders at all”.

The policy quickly spurred accusations of racism, Islamophobia and dog-whistle politics in the media, and questions about what “Kiwi values” actually were – with the alcohol clause in particular leaving many confused.

The Refugee Council of New Zealand vice president Colin Henry said he couldn’t find any evidence of immigrant anti-alcohol lobbying in New Zealand.

“I’m baffled by all of it and can only say something is underlying it,” he told Newshub.

“I can well understand people who want to preserve values. But the real question is: Are those values under threat at the moment? I don’t think that they are.”

The values policy – the details of which are still to be worked out – was hotly debated within the party and passed with some opposition, according to reports. But even if its caucus introduces a Bill, it is unlikely to come into law.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday told media, while she didn’t think the Bill was xenophobic, her Labour Party would not support it.