M.P.’s comment ‘racial bias’

Press, 3 February 1987, Page 4

M.P.’s comment ‘racial bias’

PA Wellington Permanent residence in New Zealand has been granted to about 1050 overstayers since the Government amnesty was granted in August last year, says the Assistant Secretary for Immigration, Mr Gordon Shroff.

The Opposition spokesman on immigration, Mr Bruce Townshend, said last week that 5000 overstayers who were mostly Pacific Islanders had been granted the amnesty. The amnesty applies to illegal entrants who arrived in New Zealand before August, 1983.

Mr Townshend also said the Government had a “policy of entry” for Pacific Islanders and cited the December move to waive visa requirements for Islanders in place of three-month visitor permits that could be extended to one year.

Islanders were success-

fully seeking work that rightfully belonged to New Zealanders, he said. The Minister of Immigration, Mr Burke, said Mr Townshend’s comments on Islander visitors, which were verging on racial bias, were inaccurate and illogical.

Mr Townshend had described as overstayers people whose normal three-month permits were still valid and who were entitled to an extension if they qualified. The comment was outrageous, Mr Burke said.