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New Zealand Asian population playing greater role at polls

New Zealand’s fast-growing Asian population seems set for the spotlight at this year’s general election, as official projections that it will nearly double its numbers inside the next 20 years.

The nationalist New Zealand First party, which has picked up votes from the anti-immigrant minority in past elections, with “Whose country is it anyway?” campaigns, was quick to capitalize on the new population forecasts.

There are about 400,000 Asians in the country and Statistics New Zealand predicted their number would increase by 3.4 per cent a year to 790,000 by 2026 when they would account for 16 per cent of the population.

This makes them the fastest-growing ethnic group and is driven by immigration unlike the majority white European, indigenous Maori and immigrant Pacific island communities, whose growth is projected to come from natural increases of births over deaths.

“This is a great country — a fantastic country — why do we want to stuff it up by having the wrong mix of people?” said the New Zealand First party’s deputy leader Peter Brown, himself an immigrant from Britain.

Brown said that many Asian immigrants did not speak English, did not integrate and formed “mini-societies that will lead to division, friction and resentment.”

It was a typical attack from the New Zealand First party, founded in 1993, but opinion polls showed it is destined for political oblivion at the election due by mid-November.

The opposition National Party’s ethnic Chinese Member of Parliament Pansy Wong — an immigrant from Hong Kong —shrugged it off, saying: “Asian New Zealanders are quite mature — they understand that this is election year.”

And Michael Barnett, head of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, said: “Asian New Zealanders and those overseas, should see this for what it is — a pathetic piece of political posturing by a minority party on the ropes.”

Chinese immigrants began arriving in New Zealand in the 1860s and they remain the largest Asian community.
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