Pansy Wong - Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

Parliament of New Zealand
Years Term Electorate List Party
1996–1999 45th List 26 National
1999–2002 46th List 11 National
2002–2005 47th List 10 National
2005–2008 48th List 20 National
2008–2011 49th Botany 18 National

Wong was elected to Parliament as a list MP in the 1996 elections, becoming New Zealand's first ethnically Asian MP.

She unsuccessfully contested the electorate of Auckland Central in the 2005 election. During the 48th New Zealand Parliament she served as National's spokesperson for Commerce and Liaison with Asian New Zealanders and associate spokesperson for Education (International Education), Revenue and Immigration.

She won the new seat of Botany in the 2008 election. The Botany electorate included part of the old Clevedon electorate held by Judith Collins, her National Party colleague. Collins had originally indicated to seek nomination for the seat of Howick (which the Electoral Commission later redrew and renamed to Botany following objections to the boundaries to the neighbouring electorate of Pakuranga), but then stood for the Papakura seat, which also shared common boundaries with Clevedon. Wong's decision was based partly on the fact that 33% of the Botany electorate is Asian.

On 12 November 2010 Wong resigned as a Minister after misusing her parliamentary travel perks for a trip to China on which her husband conducted private business activities, which is specifically prohibited.

Wong resigned as an MP on 17 January 2011, resulting in the 2011 Botany by-election.

On 15 September 2011 Wong was granted the right to retain the title of the Honourable for her lifetime.

Read more about this topic:  Pansy Wong

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