Gordon McLauchlan: Let me decide what I read, thanks

COMMENT

It's not enough that a bunch of Auckland university professors wanted to decide what we should hear, some push-bike posties now want to decide what we should read.

Is the New Zealand First pamphlet on immigration so morally disgusting and socially inflammatory that a postie would be entitled to refuse to deliver it? No. New Zealand Post should be entitled to fire any would-be censor not prepared to deliver it.

In my experience, the more upset these sensitive flowers are at the prejudices of others with whom they disagree the more likely they are to enjoy distorted rhetoric that matches their own beliefs.

That doesn't say anything for the contents of the pamphlet, which is brief, intellectually corrupt, cynical and racist in its implications - in other words a reflection of the cheap, populist polices of New Zealand First and the smiling cynic who leads it.

"Hundreds of thousands of Third World immigrants have arrived since Labour was elected in 1999 and they are still coming!" This is incorrect, according to the Department of Statistics.

Here's one indication of how dishonest this document is: Labour is blamed for "bringing in a flood of immigrants" and to support this contention a graphic takes up about one-sixth of the contents of the pamphlet. It charts population growth (by ethnicity) between 1991 and 2001. Labour has led the Government since the end of 1999.

Assuming, conservatively, that it took 12 months to organise the alleged policy and attitude changes that would require a new "flood of immigrants" , the chart is a gross distortion. Labour has had any real control over immigration for about one year in the 10.

Later, NZ First leader Winston Peters (he signed the pamphlet) throws in the figure of 70,000 immigrants a year. Which years? Don't ask. Ignore the fact that it's nonsense. Just let your xenophobia wash over you.

Does the pamphlet tackle the previous National Government for its part in Asian immigration? Of course not. They are centre-right where Peters thinks he is. But in fact he is of the "opportunist right" which, as every honest conservative knows, is not the same thing at all.

Peters (he signed the document) says: "Official papers show that many immigrants become burdens on the welfare system at the expense of New Zealand taxpayers." Which official papers? How many is many and what proportion of immigrants does this represent?

"We are being squeezed out of our own country." Where are we going?

"Health, education, welfare, transport and housing facilities are collapsing under the weight of immigration." Immigrants and students from overseas have put big pressure on public transport in Auckland which has responded by improving timetable frequencies enormously. Bus services are impeded, however, by New Zealanders in cars.)

"Imported crime levels are soaring and so are (sic) the number of Third World diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/Aids." The day after the pamphlet arrived I heard an HIV expert on National Radio say one of the biggest surges in the spread of the disease is now among closet gays in the South Island. Maybe NZ First includes the South Island as a Third World source of immigrants.

"The face of New Zealand is being changed through deliberate ethnic, social and cultural engineering." No scaremongering should be without its conspiracy hint.

Why do Peters and his party offer no legitimate information among all these spurious claims? Because they don't credit you with enough brains to need to appraise these things. All they want from you is your manufactured fear and indignation.

But despite all this, I don't want some postie deciding what is fit for me to read. In a free, democratic country, posties can blow any whistle they like within the rule of law, and Peters is entitled to be as obnoxious as he likes, again within the law.

Indeed, the growing impulse to shut other people up is a worry. Perhaps it's a result of the erosion of civil liberties around the Western world in the name of a war on terrorism.

That young German visitor who likened the pamphlet to the sort of material circulating in his country before World War II has the wrong end of the stick. It was by completely stifling opposing opinions with censorship backed by physical force that Hitler prospered not just through what he said himself.

Although one problem is that Peters encourages those cowards and moral retards who are gratuitously attacking ordinary, decent Asians in places like Auckland's North Shore. He should have that on his conscience.

The more people who see this pamphlet the better because I'm confident the great majority of New Zealanders who bother to read it - indeed everyone outside the large retirement village of Tauranga and other xenophobes Peters panders to - will see it for the tawdry thing it is. If this works as a vote-catcher I will be disappointed in my fellow citizens.

In Auckland, a huge number of the Asian people we see are students bringing economic value to the city and the country. They serve Peters' nasty purpose by appearing to swamp locals in the central city.

But those I have dealt with have been polite and scrupulous - more than you could say for their denigrator.

As traders and as hosts of a beautiful tourist attraction, New Zealanders are part of the wide world. It is important that we are seen as the relaxed, hospitable and charitable people most of us are; so it's a shame about NZ First.