He was an accountant stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and later joined the staff at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
In the early 1990s, he held a number of bureaucratic roles in New Zealand, including for the Department of Justice and Te Puni Kōkiri.
Delamere entered politics in the 1996 elections, when he successfully stood as a candidate for the New Zealand First party in the Te Tai Rawhiti electorate, defeating Sir Peter Tapsell and becoming one of the group known as the Tight Five.
Initially, Delamere was given ministerial responsibility for the Valuation Department and the Public Trust Office; he was also associate Treasurer.
[15][16][17][18] Several New Zealand First ministers, including leader Winston Peters, walked out of a Cabinet meeting after disagreeing with the Government's policy to sell shares in Wellington Airport.
This, combined with his former role as customs minister, led political commentator Morgan Godfery in 2019 to describe Delamere as "the first Māori to control the borders since...
Specifically, it emerged that Delamere had approved permanent residency for a group of Chinese businessmen provided they invested generously in various Māori development schemes.
[21][22] Through 1998 and 1999, Delamere publicly considered introducing legislation to support the establishment of Māori constituencies for Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
[26] Shortly before the 1999 election, Delamere joined the small Māori Te Tawharau party, giving it its first representation in Parliament.
[27] He had previously declined to join the Mauri Pacific party, established by five other former New Zealand First MPs, including three of the Tight Five.
[28] Shortly prior to the election, Delamere announced that Te Tawharau would support only a Labour Party government on confidence and supply if it won seats in the new Parliament.
Chen alleged that he had been mishandled by Immigration New Zealand compliance officers during a dawn raid in 2022, resulting in a broken left wrist.
Immigration NZ disputed Chen's account, claiming that he sustained his injuries while attempting to flee compliance officers and resisted arrest.
Chen disputed the charges and has applied for refugee status with the Immigration Protection Tribunal, claiming that he risked arrest if deported to China.
[33] In July 2020, more than twenty years after Delamere last stood for office, he joined The Opportunities Party (TOP) and served as its immigration spokesperson and candidate for Auckland Central in the 2020 election.