Former official lashes out New Zealand's main opposition party on housing data

A former senior Labor official wrote a letter to the leadership of New Zealand Labor Party on Friday, declaring he is taking legal steps over the party's decision to single out Chinese people in the foreign ownership debate.

Shane Te Pou, former Labor Maori member's chairman, has written to the party demanding his personal data be removed from Labor's database of home buyers.

Te Pou was told by an estate agency that the purchase of his family's house was likely among those used to bolster statistics purporting to show people in China were buying up Auckland houses. Te Pou is married to Annie Du, who is of Chinese ethnicity. The family used Du's name to buy the house during the period covered by the data, which is obtained by Labor.

He said in the letter that he was "stunned" to find out the fact. "My money is not foreign," said Te Pou in the letter.

Labor housing spokesperson Phil Twyford released data from an unnamed real estate firm last Saturday, which allegedly showed people with Chinese surnames accounted for 39.5 percent of the company's buyers in Auckland over a three-month period.

This was compared with the 2013 Census data showing ethnic Chinese residents or citizens accounted for just 9 percent of the population in New Zealand's biggest city.

Te Pou said, he is seeking a formal written apology and asking the Labor Party remove his family's name from the alleged Chinese investor list.

Labor's housing data was also criticized by many New Zealanders.

Chairman of New Zealand China Council Don McKinnon said earlier that New Zealand need to have a national debate on housing that avoids sending mixed messages to valued overseas partners.

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday the Labor Party would pay at the polling booths for taking "a cheap political shot at an ethnic group." Endi