Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) : Members can imagine our astonishment last week when on the front page of the Dominion Post we saw an image that highlighted what New Zealand First has been saying about our flawed refugee policy better than anything we could have said ourselves. Pictured there was a woman refugee, Asha Ali Abdille, a sickness beneficiary, who was upset because we wanted to improve our health screening services and that was preventing her from bringing in 14 additional family members.

Dail Jones: How many?

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Fourteen additional family members. Now, we have said for years that our system needs to be tightened so that one refugee equals one refugee, not 14 refugees who slide in through the back-door and on to our welfare system.

But this story just gets worse. I wonder whether the journalists involved really knew just who it was they were putting on the front page of the Dominion Post. It turns out that the so-called sympathy case for bleeding-heart liberals has a background that Al Capone would have been proud of. She has, first, several convictions for violence and intimidation; second, a charge of conspiracy to kill, which did not proceed because the prosecution witnesses refused to testify; third, evidence of already bringing in several family members, some of whom were allegedly not true family members, which checks failed to identify; fourth, regular movement between the Somali communities of Hamilton, Hawke’s Bay, Christchurch, and Lower Hutt, using intimidatory tactics to get her way; and, fifth, a well-known reputation for carrying weapons and spitting in people’s faces, and then for telling them she has AIDS—clearly a true role model for our refugee programme. This story has a disturbing undercurrent that our soft policies allow to happen.

Lianne Dalziel: When did she come?

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Ten years ago—when I was not in power. National and Labour are equally guilty on this matter. National was in power, but if the Dominion Post wants the real story it will be about the lax laws and weak system used to allow these people to come in, and then straight away to exploit the New Zealand taxpayer.

This morning at the select committee we were told by the Immigration Service that three of the MV Tampa boys have brought in 11 people already—each, not together; three of them have brought in 11 each. That is a disgrace and an abomination to this country.

We are now discovering that Chinese immigration to Christchurch has underpinned a thriving black market that local authorities, on their own admission, are not capable of containing. They estimate, from what they actually know, that there is a multimillion dollar black market operating in Christchurch, but they really do not know how big it is. The basis of the black market is the corruption-riddled immigration consultant business that this Government has done nothing to combat, and that continues to see scam after scam go undetected and unpunished. This black market operation is aided by lax laws surrounding student visas, work permits, and other easily exported visas and permits. The result of that, when an investigation by the Immigration Service happens, is that nearly half of all marriage claims and over 80 percent of all job claims in that region turn out to be fake.

If we were in power this is what would happen: a person would tell one lie—and be on the next plane. That does not happen with those people in the Labour Government. Under the Labour Government anybody and everybody can exploit the New Zealand taxpayer. Once here, these groups set about ripping off the system, and 90 percent of refugees have never been off benefits. Nine out of 10 are still on benefits. Once here, these groups set out to rip off the system and work in the shady world of the black market, often escaping penalties because of the soft policies surrounding these issues.

It is a rort, and it has to stop. It is costing taxpayers millions of dollars and has resulted in a new brand of criminal underworld that we are not, in any way, equipped to deal with, but which requires urgent attention. Every time I hear the Minister give assurances, I know full well that he has no idea what on earth he is talking about. He has no idea about what is going on out there. He is just making lousy excuses, as the previous Minister did. Fifty thousand people are coming here, and refugees—[Interruption] Well, if a country is entitled to have 14 each, and that will be 20. We are not talking about 750 refugees a year; we are talking about 20,000 people coming here on a UN requirement for 750.