"We want them to salute our flag, respect our laws, honour our institutions and, above all, don't bring absolutely anti-women attitudes with them, treating women like cattle, like fourth-class citizens."

Immigrants from countries who "treat their women like cattle", should be interviewed to check their attitude before entry into New Zealand, says NZ First leader Winston Peters.

He went further, repeating party calls for a reduction in immigration numbers, and calling for every immigrant to go through an interview process before their visa is approved.

He made the comments on current affairs show Q+A, also calling for immigration numbers to be cut to between 7000 and 15,000 a year.

Peters said it was not race-based.

"They could come from anywhere in the world, as they have, and some have been brilliant people who have come into this country as both refugees and immigrants.

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"But here's what we want. We want them to salute our flag, respect our laws, honour our institutions and, above all, don't bring absolutely anti-women attitudes with them, treating women like cattle, like fourth-class citizens."

Women in New Zealand needed to "wake up to what's going on".

Talking to Fairfax Media later, Peters took issue with questions over whether the policy was directed toward Muslim countries.

"There are countries I had in mind, they're not specifically of any one religion. But they're parts of the world, where women are treated like cattle

"Those countries are well known to us, and they don't have any specialty apart from the fact that that's how they treat women."

If they were going to come here, "then they'd better have a different attitude".

Peters said he had the "greatest respect" for and he had travelled to a number of Muslim countries. There were many reasons why New Zealand wouldn't want to take certain immigrants in.

Asked how personal attitudes could be monitored, he said: "You interview each one".

That would require immigration to be cut down, he said.

"New Zealand First has made that very clear. First of all, we want to know who's coming. We're not just going to take anybody; we need to check them out person by person.

"But the first thing you must do, and that's the precondition, you've got to cut mass immigration of one, 20,000 a year or net 70,000 at the moment. You can't do both."

In a separate interview, a cut in migrant numbers would see the Auckland housing market drop within 2 years, Economist Michael Reddell told Q+A.

"If we changed that target from the 45-50 thousand a year to the 10-15 thousand a year we'd see house prices in Auckland I suspect 25 percent lower within a year or two.

"That would take a huge burden off young New Zealanders, particularly poor New Zealanders trying to get into their first house."