Yang Jian: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYang Jian: General Debate[Sitting date: 11 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10990. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr JIAN YANG (National): As the only Chinese member of Parliament I would like to join my colleagues and demand that Labour apologise and demand Mr Phil Twyford and Mr Andrew Little apologise to the Chinese community. The initial data suggests that non-resident buyers make up only about 3 percent of New Zealand property transactions—only 3 percent. In Auckland it is about 4 percent. And of the 3 percent fewer than 30 percent are from China. So in total less than 1 percent of the New Zealand property transactions were made by people from China. This is a very small percentage. This makes nonsense of Labour’s call to ban Asians from buying and selling land. Remember what Labour said last year? I can quote what Phil Twyford said last year. He claimed that people of Chinese descent bought 39.5 percent of houses sold by a major Auckland real estate firm. “This is foreign money—this is foreign money.” he said. That was typical Labour: desperate and lazy—desperate because the polls have been consistently low and lazy because its members have been fighting inside themselves—within themselves. So this is what Labour did to the Chinese community. Now Labour should apologise and the Chinese community may accept the apology and then move on. But so far Labour has not and refuses to apologise.Look at today’s Labour—very depressing. Look at what it did. The Labour Party was the party that apologised in 2002 for the poll tax on Chinese. Labour signed the free-trade agreement with China in 2008 and this party has changed. Now it is targeting the Chinese community very cynically and shamelessly for political gain. This is the Labour Party today. The Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy slammed Labour and Phil Twyford’s claims and said that Chinese New Zealanders deserve better than this. Of course the Chinese community has been in New Zealand for many years since the 1860s when we came as gold miners and we made a great contribution to New Zealand’s society and economy—basically in all walks of life. The Chinese community has been law-abiding hard-working and has made a great contribution in all sectors of New Zealand. And also some weeks ago I went to the launch of a book entitled Chinese ANZACs. A few dozen Chinese Kiwis participated in the World War fighting alongside other Kiwis. So this is the Chinese community—we are Kiwis although made in China. That is what I said in my maiden speech: “We are Kiwis although made in China.” We are genuinely Kiwis.Also it is important to note that the Chinese community has been a major force in property development—talk to many developers in Auckland. Although the Chinese buy properties the Chinese also build properties. I have been talking to so many Chinese developers. They have become so important in Auckland although people tend to forget that we have been contributing to New Zealand’s economy. Labour has forgotten that.Also I will say this Chinese-sounding name approach could do much harm to New Zealand’s economy to New Zealand relations with China and actually to our global reputation. We came to New Zealand because we love New Zealand as a genuinely multi-cultural society—an open tolerant society. We came to New Zealand not only because of the environment but also because of the social harmony. But now Labour has destroyed that kind of reputation so it is important for us to make sure that Labour recognises its mistake and apologises and then we move on. Fortunately New Zealanders do not share Labour’s xenophobic views. Look at the Chinese Lantern Festival each year.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.