The mayor of New Zealand's largest city has chastised Asian immigrants for "filthy habits" such as spitting on sidewalks, a news report said yesterday.
Auckland Mayor John Banks said regional civic and business leaders recently told him they were disgusted by immigrants, mainly from Asia, "using public pavements as handkerchiefs," the New Zealand Herald said.
"I don't hold back in stopping them in the street and telling them in this country we don't do that," the newspaper quoted Banks as saying of immigrants.
With a population of 1.2 million, Auckland is New Zealand's most populous city. About 280,000 of New Zealand's 4 million people are of Asian ancestry and most live in Auckland.
A reporter sought Banks' comments after the issue was raised by the local Tamaki Community Board at a meeting Feb. 18, the Herald said. Banks said the Auckland Regional Council, Tamaki Business Association and local retailers had also raised the matter of "notably Asians" spitting on footpaths.
"Many of them come from countries where spitting in public is acceptable and when they come here they assume it's the same," the Herald quoted Banks as saying.
"We need to remind them that they are welcome here, but their filthy habits aren't," added Banks, a wealthy restaurant owner and former National Party lawmaker who is up for re-election later this year.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Auckland's mayor was adamant that his comments should not be interpreted as part of an anti-migrant campaign.
"I am pro-immigrant and very supportive of the Asian community. Most Asian visitors and ... new settlers to this country don't behave this way," Banks said.
"So it's not an anti-Asian thing. I'm a No. 1 supporter of good immigrants from wherever, regardless of color or creed," he said.
But the chairman of the United Chinese Association of New Zealand, Steven Wong, condemned Banks' remarks.
"I've been here 31 years. It sometimes happens and it's not only Asians, but any people from any country" who do it, he said.
The opposition National Party's new leader, Don Brash, recently sparked heated debate in New Zealand when he pledged to reform laws giving preferential treatment to indigenous Maori people.
Brash's comments were denounced as racially divisive by Prime Minister Helen Clark, but they clearly struck a chord with the electorate. A poll released yesterday showed the National Party's popularity had soared 17 percentage points to 45.5 percent from a month earlier while Clark's Labor Party slumped 9 percentage points to 37 percent.
Auckland, the nation's commercial center, is 658km north of the capital, Wellington.
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