Dunedin Mum

I voted for ACT in my party vote last year, and grudgingly held my nose and gave Judith Collins my electorate vote. National didn’t deserve it, but they got my vote because anything was better than Ardern-style communism. 

Grabbing 10 spots in the Beehive, up from one, was a great achievement for ACT. It was good to see a right wing party finally managing to do something. While the National party seems to be in its death spiral, ACT is standing up for our rights and our beliefs, and it’s great to feel we have at least someone in our corner. 

Despite ACT’s achievement, I genuinely cannot see them ever being a serious contender for leadership until they tackle the big issue for our country: Immigration. The housing crisis is simply an offshoot of having too many people flooding our tiny country too quickly, requiring tens of thousands of extra homes to be built every year to house them when we cannot even manage to house our own indigenous Kiwis. 

To say that immigration has little effect on housing is an outright lie. While there are real benefits of mass immigration, the costs are too high to continue on our current path. We’ve just tipped 5.1 million people, with all the increase in our population over the last few years being immigrants.

So where does ACT stand on this biggest issue? Nowhere, it seems. They’re pro-immigration it seems. “Openness to newcomers is part of our national DNA”, they proudly proclaim on their website. Sure, but at the expense of our children ever being able to afford a home? Surely that’s equivalent to throwing your child out on the footpath to fend for themselves while bringing your neighbour’s kid in and buying them a PlayStation!

ACT argues that red tape is the problem. They’re partially right, but absolute numbers count far more. No matter how much red tape you remove, no matter how easy you make it to build, continuing to bring in more people than you can adequately house is a recipe for disaster. 

While in the past New Zealand has been very open to immigration – and I have absolutely no problem with that – it’s a policy and attitude that is harming New Zealanders. I’ve heard the statistic that we’re currently bringing in 10,000 newcomers a month. I don’t know if that’s correct, but based on that figure we would need to build at least 2 500 houses per month (assuming four people per family) to just break even in the number of homes available. 

We’re not even treading water.

It’s not just housing. Our roads can’t cope with the new numbers. Our cities are in gridlock, our water supply is Victorian-era and substandard and cannot even cope with the population we have. Our schools would be overcrowded were it not for insane levels of truancy, and our hospital waiting lists continue to grow. All of this clearly points to overpopulation, a population out of control and out of alignment with infrastructure; numbers growing well beyond our capacity to house, transport and educate. 

So why the reticence to tackle mass immigration, ACT? What’s up with that? Are you so firmly in the pocket of landlords and multinationals that you don’t want to help solve the massive problems that New Zealand is faced with? Have you gone too “woke”, worried you might offend someone if you dare to say “New Zealand is full”? Are you concerned that people might see caring for our own kids first as “racist”? (Hint: it’s not.)

Here’s the thing: every single person I speak with – immigrants included – agrees that immigration is out of control. Every single one. It doesn’t matter whether they’re left, right or in-between, they all believe it’s time we housed and cared for our own people first. Particularly for the next generation, who at the current rate will never own homes. I have four kids, and I can’t see them ever owning homes. It’s devastating to look at your kids and know they will always be poor. 

I’m thankful to ACT and its leader David Seymour for the stands they have taken so far. They need to take a stand on this issue too. I genuinely believe that a firm stance against immigration will not only gain ACT a huge following but plausibly win them the next election. 

  • Train our own people first. 
  • House our own people first. 
  • Educate our own people first. 
  • Give jobs to our own people first.
  • Give our kids a chance. 

So, ACT…what’s your next move?

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