David Bennett has unfinished business

On Monday morning, David Bennett began his day talking to migrant families wanting to call Hamilton home.

As the associate spokesperson for immigration, and National’s Hamilton East MP, it’s often he meets people in similar circumstances.

Immigration has become his political driving force, he said.

‘‘Hamilton is a very diverse and multi-cultural city and that is going to suffer with the reduction in immigration.

‘‘None of the families I saw today would get in under [Labour’s] policy. What they are doing, is they are creating a twotier system within New Zealand: New Zealanders that were born here or who have residency, and a working class that come in, work, and leave.

‘‘I’m very much against that. New Zealand needs those hard working people. The strongest migrants are the ones that have got a bit of hunger. They might not have money, or the highest level of skills, but they’ve got a hunger to do well.’’

Bennett first faced opposition when he was elected into the Hamilton East seat in 2005. That year, Labour was in Government.

Twelve years on, he’s positioned on the opposing side again, but said he has unfinished business delivering for Hamilton.

‘‘It was a little bit different then because we were in opposition at the end of a opposition period. So, you could feel the [National] party was on a rising wave. Whereas this time we’ve just gone into opposition, but opposition politics has it’s advantages,’’ he said.

‘‘You have the ability to advocate a lot more in public for your community’s concerns. In government, a lot of that advocating is done behind the scenes. That’s the real power of opposition; people a lot of the time think because you’re not in government, you can’t do anything, but you can.’’

Bennett often plays wearing the Number 33 jersey for Hamilton’s Chinese football team, the Waikato Dragons.

When it comes to the latest immigration policy, he said it’s a silly decision made by the country’s new government and not the Kiwi way.