Pansy Wong

Pansy Yu Fong Wong (Chinese: 黃徐毓芳; Cantonese Yale: Wòhng Chèuih Yūk-fōng; born 1955[1][2][3]) is a New Zealand former politician.

[4] Wong was born in Shanghai and raised in a one-room Hong Kong apartment by her mother, Pui Ching Chui, with her two brothers after her parents chose to leave Maoist China.

[11] Wong's early career was in business and accounting, including a period as chief financial controller at Smiths City.

[12][13] The same year, she contested the Canterbury Regional Council, in the five-member Fitzgerald constituency, on the Christchurch Action team ticket.

To mark her election, Wong released 130 balloons from the steps of Parliament, symbolising the 130 years since the first Chinese settlers arrived in New Zealand.

[16][27][28] She supported Jenny Shipley in the 1997 New Zealand National Party leadership election and was thereafter appointed to shadow the consumer affairs portfolio.

The ethnic affairs portfolio was disestablished under Bill English's successor Don Brash and Wong was made National's liaison with the Asian community and allocated associate spokesperson roles related to education, immigration and revenue.

[35] She was returned as a list MP for the fourth time at the 2005 general election and was assigned the spokesperson portfolios in ethnic affairs and accident compensation by new leader John Key.

She advocated for more lenient immigration rules, like easier language tests, to support a greater number of Asian migrants into New Zealand.

[48] Wong's ministerial career ended in scandal when it was claimed she improperly used her status to help her husband's business interests while travelling in China.

[54][55] However, an audit investigation into the Wongs was launched in 2011 which recommended further repayments, as well as law changes regarding MPs' expenses and entitlements, be made.

[62] On 15 September 2011 Wong was granted the right to retain the title of "the Honourable" for her lifetime in recognition of her term as a member of the Executive Council.