Sigh. There's an election coming up, and NZ First is polling badly, so they're up to their old tricks again, hauling out all the vile old rhetoric about an "asian invasion" and New Zealand being "inundated" (that's "swamped" with more syllables) by immigrants. The focus for their ire is the latest population projections from StatisticsNZ, which show the number of Asian New Zealanders almost doubling over the next twenty years to 790,000. To which my response is "so"?
Unlike the elderly xenophobes in New Zealand First, I am not afraid of difference. I do not think skin colour matters. And I certainly don't care whether the average skin tone of New Zealand in twenty years time is lighter or darker, yellower or browner. It doesn't matter now, and it won't matter then. Instead, what matters is whether we remain a liberal and tolerant society where people can be who they are and pursue their varied life-plans without interference. And that certainly isn't aided by NZ First's ugly triennial outburst.
Fortunately, Winston's fan club isn't getting any younger, which means natural attrition will soon take its toll. Unfortunately it may take a few more elections before we are finally rid of this poisonous cancer in our body politic.
