A new political force to be reckoned with

Paul Young, who will stand as the New Citizen Party candidate in the upcoming Botany byelection. Photograph / Paul Estcourt

Sitting in his office inside his family-owned and operated digital photo shop, Chinese businessman Paul Young explains why he stood in the Botany byelection as a candidate for a new Chinese party.

"The Maori have their Maori Party, but who do we have to represent us in Parliament?" asked Mr Young, who migrated to New Zealand from Taiwan 21 years ago.

"Soon there will be more Asians than Maori in New Zealand, but in politics our voice is still very tiny."

Mr Young told the Herald before the March byelection he was standing because he wanted to be that "Chinese voice" and represent Asian interests in Parliament.

Despite having been in New Zealand since the 1800s, the Chinese have found it hard going in politics.

For most of the past 15 years the only Chinese MP was Pansy Wong, of the National Party.

Mrs Wong was the country's first Asian MP, but quit after investigators found her husband did business in China while on a taxpayer-funded visit.

She did not respond to the Herald's interview request for this series.

Act's Kenneth Wang became New Zealand's second Chinese MP when he entered Parliament in 2004 to replace Donna Awatere Huata.

Now, the sole Chinese voice in Parliament is that of Labour MP Raymond Huo, who entered on the list in the 2008 election.

There are no Chinese on the new Auckland Council and only three of the 149 people on local boards are Chinese - Peter Chan (Henderson-Massey), Lily Ho (Whau) and Wayne Huang (Howick).

Political parties formed in the mid-1990s targeting the Asian vote, hoping to take advantage of the MMP system, yielded little success.

The Asia Pacific United Party won 0.02 per cent in the 1996 election, and the Ethnic Minority Party, which stood 11 candidates, managed to gain only 0.12 per cent of the vote.

But Mr Young believes times have changed, and things would be different for an Asian-focused party today.

A picture promoting his New Citizen Party on his Facebook page says: "It aims to represent Chinese New Zealanders and has a focus on economic and law and order issues".

"The Chinese population here has grown about four times since 1996 and China is also playing a far more significant role in the New Zealand economy, so now it's not only in the interest of the Chinese community to have representation in Parliament, but also mainstream Kiwis," he said.

Mr Young came third in the March Botany byelection, held to replace Pansy Wong, behind winner Jami-Lee Ross of the National Party and Labour's Michael Wood, winning 10.6 per cent of the vote - the highest poll for any ethnic minority party.

If this margin were repeated in the general election this year, the New Citizen Party would gain a significant number of seats and possibly become a "kingmaker" party.

But Mr Young's performance did not come without controversy.

The United Chinese Press, a local Chinese paper linked to his party, is under police investigation after the Electoral Commission found it to be guilty of breaching the Electoral Act. The paper published an election-day edition which carried editorials supporting Mr Young and party advertisements, which the commission said was against the law.

Both the paper and the new party are backed by Jack Chen, the Chinese businessman behind the failed Crafar farm empire bid.

Despite the setback, New Citizen Party secretary Sam Huo says the party plans to field at least 10 "prominent" candidates at the coming general election and remains confident of getting into Parliament this year.

He said the party had engaged former Maori Party member Eru Thompson as "campaign planner" and was aiming at getting multi-cultural support, including Maori.

But Labour's Raymond Huo insists the way to get Chinese interests heard is not by having "another Chinese party" but more Chinese MPs in the main political parties.

"Having good Chinese MPs in Labour or National would steer New Zealand ahead far more effectively," he said.

Mr Huo said Chinese MPs' guanxi (relationship) with China would help New Zealand foster better relations and gain a foothold in the world's fastest growing market, building a bridge between Government and businesses here and the MPs' birth country.

He said many New Zealanders' view of China was still "like a frog in the well" that was stuck in the 1970s.

A 2005 Auckland University survey by Shee-Jeong Park also showed Asians voted in a similar pattern to the rest of New Zealand - 47 per cent Labour and 40 per cent National. Act came a distant third with 6 per cent.

Many Chinese voters struggled to understand New Zealand's democratic processes and the MMP system because they came from a communist background.

A poll of 100 people in Botany before the 2008 election found some were afraid to vote against against the ruling party for fear of reprisals, and some didn't think their votes were secret.

A separate survey also found some Chinese voters rated loyalty to China as the most important trait a Chinese MP in New Zealand must have.

"If they come from China, they think the Government must be good and the Opposition must be criminals," Steven Young, president of the New Zealand Chinese Association, said in a 2006 Listener article entitled Asian Vote.

A voting population of more than 100,000 is high enough to convince politicians of the importance of winning the Chinese vote today - even National's Korean list MP Melissa Lee has posted on Facebook that she is learning to speak Mandarin.