New Zealand party denies racism charge after linking Chinese names to soaring Auckland home prices
Opposition accused of racism in its release of buyer data on Auckland houses
New Zealand's main opposition Labour Party denied allegations of racism on Wednesday after blaming Chinese buyers for pushing up prices in Auckland's red-hot property market.
Amid concerns that houses are becoming unattainable in New Zealand's largest city, Labour released data over the weekend purporting to show that 40 per cent of buyers in Auckland were of Chinese descent. That far exceeded the 9 per cent of the city's population who are ethnic Chinese.
But critics said the data - based on whether the surname of buyers appeared to be Chinese - was "half-baked", with Housing Minister Nick Smith accusing Labour of "playing the race card".
Labour's housing spokesman Phil Twyford rejected the allegation, saying he was aiming to promote debate on an important issue, not single out Chinese people. "If they have perceived this as a criticism of them, it isn't. Our only concern is about offshore Chinese speculators," he told the New Zealand Herald.
Labour's data also showed that 19 of the 20 most common surnames among homebuyers were typically Chinese. Yet such names only made up eight of the top 20 most common surnames among all Auckland residents.
The leader of the centre-left party, Andrew Little, said raising the issue of foreign ownership was difficult but needed to be done.
"[It's] always going to be a tricky subject to raise, but the data we had told a pretty clear story," he told commercial radio.