Perhaps significant than the re-election of a minority Labour government at the New Zealand election over the weekend is the startling emergence of an anti-immigration party, New Zealand First Party.

Its rise raises the question of anti-immigration sentiment — and its use as a political issue — of the type seen in neighbouring Australia, where it has been seen in recent months in the government's tough policies against asylum seekers.

Polling over 10 percent of the vote — on par with the initial success of Pauline Hanson's anti-immigration One Nation Party in Australia a few years ago — New Zealand First's anti-immigration views are set to resonate across the country's political landscape.

In his final election rally last Thursday, ahead of the July 27 poll, the leader of New Zealand First, Maori-born Winston Peters declared that one of the ''fundamental rights of ordinary Kiwis (New Zealanders)" is "the right to stop being swamped by a flood of immigrants".

Peters proposes that the number of new people approved by the government to reside in the country of 4 million people be cut from the current 50,000 per year to only 10,000 — a figure so low New Zealand's population would decline once more.

"How will ordinary Kiwis or their children benefit from the cheap labour economy that mass immigration is creating? How is forging our national identity served by a mass influx of immigrants?'' Peters rhetorically asked in a speech last week.

Free and easy immigration

"Ordinary Kiwis,'' he said, "understand the security threat posed by free and easy immigration".

In an election in which almost 40 percent of the total vote went to minor parties, Peter's New Zealand First Party surged in the last two weeks of the election campaign to win 13 seats under the proportional electoral system.

Peters has not confined his criticism to immigration, railing against the implementation of the Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed in 1840between British settlers with the indigenous Maori community to govern settlement, governance by the British and secure Maori land ownership.

"The Treaty industry that thrives on fomenting division and separatism is "one of the forces that are undermining, fragmenting and eroding the social cohesion of our society,'' Peters argues.

Peters' party is one that Prime Minister Helen Clark — whose Labour Party gained only 41 percent of the vote in the election and won 52 of 120 seats in the single house of Parliament — has ruled out discussions in forming a minority government.

"For me, the only ugly note that was really struck in this election campaign is from those who tried to divide New Zealander against New Zealander,'' Clark pointed out. ''Labour won't stand for that.''

Minority government

Clark, however, has commenced negotiations with a number of other minor parties to form a minority government.

Still, Tim Bale, senior lecturer in political science at Victoria University, says that one message from the just-finished poll is that Peters has carved out a political niche amongst older New Zealanders.

"What he is tapping into is not so much an economic anxiety, but a cultural anxiety amongst older New Zealanders that their country is not the country they grew up in,'' he said. ''They look at one thing and that is immigration — and the face of New Zealand is changing with a lot more Asian people arriving.''

Professor Richard Bedford at Waikato University's Population Studies Centre argues that actually, much of the increase in the number Asian people Peters complains about are students.

"A significant component of people of Asian ethnicity are students in New Zealand's burgeoning international education industry. The biggest increase in the Asian population in Mr Peters' electorate has come from marketing education opportunities,'' he wrote in a column in the New Zealand Herald newspaper this week.

With opinion polls showing that a majority of voters are concerned about immigration from Asia, Peters rejects the accusation that he plays the race card for electoral advantage.

However, in a televised debate in the election campaign, Peters reacted when the editor of a regional newspaper, the Southland Times , suggested that the local community was short of workers and might welcome immigrants.

Remarkable ability

"So you want a bunch of people from Bangladesh and India to come down here? I don't think so. Ask your people on the streets of Southland,'' Peters said.

Still, Peters has the remarkable ability to bridge constituencies that would normally be considered to be polarised by his railing against both immigration and the "Maori industry", says Jane Kelsey, commentator on New Zealand politics and professor of law at Auckland University.

"Winston knows what trigger points to push, particularly with the elderly. There is a real paradox that whilst much of Winston's rhetoric is racist, though he dresses it up in ways that he claims aren't racist, it has some appeal to Maori voters as well,'' Kelsey said.

"Peters is able to bridge in some senses what appears to be chasms between constituencies because of his charisma. It was just like that with Pauline Hanson, she had that for some people,'' Bale argued.

Whether Peters can manage the spoils of his success — unlike Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party that has largely imploded — remains to be seen.

But Bale thinks that Peters may well be able to maintain his new power base. "It might well be possible for him to keep these issues boiling over the next three years, he probably could still push it further actually,'' he said.

Explained Bale: "For a number of people cultural diversity is scary and the Labor and National parties have got to realise that and admit to it without pandering to it.'' — IPS