Photo: NZ HeraldGreen Party co-leader James Shaw has apologised for the way he announced his party's immigration policy last year after complaints that the Greens were pandering to anti-immigrant rhetoric. Mr Shaw said his party had now abandoned its immigration policy, and was focused on steering the public debate on migration in New Zealand towards values rather than numbers. After commissioning research last year, the Greens proposed capping migration at 1% of population growth, saying that the Government's proposed cuts did not go far enough. "Migrants are not to blame for the social and economic ills of this country. Spokesman Gayaal Iddamalgoda said the Greens' proposed immigration cap had "cloaked racist pandering under pseudo-scientific rhetoric''.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 02, 2017 04:52 UTC