National party would do away with UN Migration Compact - Simon Bridges

Peter Williams 01/07/2019
Simon Bridges & Peter Williams Source: Magic

Simon Bridges joins Peter Williams in studio to explain what the National Party would do in Government including pulling out of the united Nations Migration Compact.

Williams begins the interview by asking what Simon thinks of the parallels that people draw between National and the far right when they talk of pulling out of the Migration Compact.

Simon Bridges defended National by saying, "we're the most pro-immigration party in Parliament, so this is not some sort of dog whistle thing around immigration."

We like immigration we understand that you need it to get the country going.

"We just take the view that New Zealand should decide our immigration policies and who gets to come here, not the UN."

When it came to discussing the fact that the agreement is non-binding Simon explained, "even if it's is non-binding the reality of these things is that they always, overtime, become part of what you have to do."

"The pressure accumulates, I can tell you what judge's will say is; 'well it is non-binding but we must interpret the law in a complementary way."

Peter then brings up that Winston Peters has been quite hostile toward National as "relationships between the National Party and New Zealand first seem to be as wide apart as they ever were [which] makes it impossible that national and NZ first could ever go into a coalition."

He continues "with you guys polling in the mid 40s, you have been for a long time, you've got no friends you can't get up to 50" so how do National intend on getting back into Government?

Simon claims that Winston Peters sees "politics as a sport, I mean that's actually my criticism of him, fundamentally he sees it as more fun and games than the reality of what it is to New Zealanders." He continues to explain National's pro-immigration stance.

Almost the only reason we've got growth at the moment is immigrants.

"I think the answer is if you gonna have immigrants you gotta keep doing good infrastructure."

The reality is under this Government they stopped all our transport projects.

You can listen to the full interview above.