29 Facts About Meng Foon

Meng Foon served as New Zealand's race relations commissioner from August 2019 to June 2023, resigning after failing to declare payments of $2 million he took for emergency housing while director of an investment company.

Meng Foon was born in August 1959 in Gisborne in New Zealand's North Island.

Meng Foon's mother is Ng Heng Kiu of Hong Kong and his father is Liu Sui Kai of Guangzhou.

Meng Foon attended Makaraka School where he was exposed to Maori culture including flax making and the haka war dance.

Meng Foon later attended Gisborne Intermediate School and Gisborne Boys' High School.

Meng Foon studied English, social studies, the sciences, physical education and the Maori language at Gisborne Boys' High School.

Meng Foon left high school at Sixth Form to help run his family's market garden business.

Meng Foon expanded his family's market garden business into several shops.

In 1985, Meng Foon's parents retired and emigrated to Sydney, Australia before retiring in Hong Kong.

In 1995, Meng Foon stood as councillor for the Gisborne District Council's Patutahi Taruheru ward at the encouragement of two detectives.

Meng Foon won the 1995 local election and was elected to the Patutahi Taruheru ward.

In 1998, Meng Foon unsuccessfully ran for the position of Mayor of Gisborne.

In 2001, Meng Foon ran again for the Gisborne mayoralty and was successfully elected.

Meng Foon was the first person to serve five consecutive terms as Gisborne mayor since Harry Barker retired in 1977.

In 2016, Meng Foon won his sixth consecutive term as mayor of the Gisborne District, defeating three other candidates.

On 8 August 2019, the Gisborne District Council voted unanimously to appoint the deputy mayor, Rehette Stoltz, as mayor when Meng Foon formally resigned on 22 August 2019.

In July 2019, Justice Minister Andrew Little confirmed that Meng Foon had been appointed as the new Race Relations Commissioner, with his term commencing on 26 August 2019.

In December 2019, Meng Foon criticised the cartoonist Garrick Tremain's cartoon in the Otago Daily Times which made light of the measles epidemic in Samoa, calling it a "slap in the face" for the victims' families.

Meng Foon urged people to abandon their racism and prejudices and to accept that the world is changing and that the Maori economy is growing.

In March 2021, Meng Foon added his voice to those calling for an end to the reality show Police Ten 7 - which sparked controversy.

In late November 2022, Meng Foon criticised the recently-elected Mayor of Kaipara Craig Jepson for interrupting Maori ward councillor Pera Paniora's karakia.

Meng Foon stated that it was very important for councils and all organisations to create the right space for Maori to honour the Treaty of Waitangi and to express their culture and language.

In March 2023, Meng Foon called on Mayor of Invercargill Nobby Clark to apologise after the latter made a series of racial, profane, and violent words and phrases during an Art Foundation New Zealand event in Invercargill in order to draw attention to limits on free speech and profanity.

Clark responded by calling for Meng Foon to resign as Race Relations Commissioner for not investigating poet Tusiata Avia for making alleged hate speech in a poem criticising British explorer Captain James Cook.

On 16 June 2023, Meng Foon resigned as Race Relations Commissioner after failing to declare several conflicts of interest as required under the Crown Entities Act.

Meng Foon served as the director of an emergency housing company that had received income from government payments including over NZ$2 million in emergency accommodation funding.

Meng Foon's resignation followed an internal inquiry that the Human Rights Commission had conducted into Meng Foon's interests including emergency accommodation funding.

Meng Foon disputed that he had failed to declare his conflict of interest regarding the emergency accommodation funding and claimed that he had declared these interests prior to assuming his role as Race Relations Commissioner.

At the age of 21, Meng Foon married his wife Ying, who was 20 years old at the time.