30 Facts About Pansy Wong

Pansy Yu Fong Wong is a New Zealand former politician.

Pansy Wong was New Zealand's first MP and first Cabinet minister of Asian ethnicity and served as Minister for Ethnic Affairs and Minister of Women's Affairs in the Fifth National Government.

Pansy Wong resigned from Parliament in January 2011 after allegations of misusing parliamentary travel allowances.

Pansy 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.

Pansy Wong's father, Hung Shun Tsui, a seaman, was away most of the time for work.

In Hong Kong, Wong took the English name Pansy and attended the Queen Elizabeth School.

The family emigrated to Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1974, when Pansy Wong was aged 19.

Pansy Wong is married to Malaysian-born businessman Sammy Teck Seng Wong, whom she met at university.

Sammy Pansy Wong was a justice of the peace from 1998 until his retirement in 2020 and had diverse business interests, including shareholder interests in the education, education, and transport industries.

Pansy Wong was reappointed to a second term, scheduled to end in February 1997, but she retired early upon her election to Parliament.

Pansy Wong was encouraged to stand for Parliament by National MP for Fendalton Philip Burdon.

Pansy Wong was selected as a list-only candidate for the National Party ahead of the 1996 general election.

Pansy Wong was elected as a list MP on 14 October 1996, becoming New Zealand's first ethnically Asian MP.

Pansy Wong rejected suggestions, including from Winston Peters, that she was a "token" representative for the Asian community and later said these events set her ambition of becoming an electorate representative to get a stronger mandate.

Pansy Wong supported Jenny Shipley in the 1997 New Zealand National Party leadership election and was thereafter appointed to shadow the consumer affairs portfolio.

Pansy Wong sought the Christchurch Central candidacy at the 1999 general election, but was unsuccessful.

Ahead of the 2002 general election, Pansy Wong relocated to Auckland to contest the electorate of Auckland Central.

Pansy Wong was spokesperson for ethnic affairs and tourism in the English shadow cabinet until 2003.

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

Pansy Wong 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.

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

Pansy Wong dismissed the Labour government's 2002 apology to the Chinese community for the historic poll tax as staged and paternalistic, although was criticised for upsetting the descendants of those affected who had worked to secure the apology.

Pansy Wong, who was a proponent of Asian integration within New Zealand and did not believe there should be a stand-alone ethnic affairs ministry, continued to face political attacks on the basis of her ethnicity and accent.

Pansy Wong won the new electorate of Botany in the 2008 general election.

Pansy Wong resigned her positions when it emerged her husband, Sammy Wong, had accompanied her on ministerial visits overseas to conduct his business activities and used the address of her electoral office as the registered address for his businesses.

On 14 December 2010, Pansy Wong announced she would resign from Parliament, effective from mid-January.

Pansy Wong gave her valedictory statement on the same day.

Pansy Wong was succeeded in her ministerial portfolios by Hekia Parata.

In 1993, Pansy Wong was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.

On 15 September 2011 Pansy 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.