New party aims to make a splash in Botany

If a stranger drove around the Botany electorate today they'd probably think the New Citizen Party was one of the main players in New Zealand politics.

Billboards of its candidate, local digital printing businessman Paul Young, are of similar prominence to National Party front-runner Jami-Lee Ross and possibly more prominent than those for Labour candidate Michael Wood, whose face appears on few if any billboards.

However, the party was only established last year, and Mr Young is the New Citizen Party's first candidate.

Mr Young and his campaign manager Eru Thompson say the party doesn't have a leader at present. But it's clearly well-resourced -- something Mr Thompson, a veteran campaigner who has worked with NZ First and the Maori Party, says is "a comfort zone that we would all love to have in all our parties".

Among its members are former Labour Party candidate Stephen Ching, while also connected is Jack Chen, who was one of the driving forces behind the bid by Hong Kong company Natural Dairy NZ for the Crafar farms.

"His involvement is just to promote the party," Mr Thompson said.

"He's very much a supporter and hopefully one day he'll choose to become a member."

Mr Young came to New Zealand from Taiwan 22 years ago with a bachelor degree in international business because his parents wanted to emigrate. For the past 16 years he's run Wow Digital, which is currently based in the Somerville Shopping Area, a precinct of mainly Asian businesses in suburban Meadowlands.

Mr Young says the party aims to represent all New Zealanders, but he particularly pushes high-quality immigration and foreign investment as a way to help improve the New Zealand economy.

"New Zealand is a very good place, with nice land and nice people, but we don't have a very good planning. That's reason we need new fresh ideas we brought.

"We used to lead the other countries. Now we follow the other countries."

Firm policies are a little harder to come by. The firmest of them is a proposal to force an MP to resign from Parliament after six years, though they could stand again after another three.

Mr Young also says the party will focus on policies rather than politics, which he says the main parties focus on too much.

"The two major parties -- if one says something, the other will say no. If Labour says something, National will say they disagree. They're just against each other, they're not really listening to everybody."

The party also says it will have a focus on improving the economy and community safety. As yet there are no policies on its website on how it will achieve this, though Mr Young and Mr Thompson say firmer policies will be in place for the general election.

Mr Thompson says the party plans to stand a full list of candidates in November, but for now its focus is on Botany.

It's a good electorate for the party to start in. A third of the population is of Asian descent, and half the population was born overseas -- and many of those born here will be, like Mr Young's two children, born to immigrants.

Mr Thompson thinks the demographics of an electorate which elected Pansy Wong at the last election are in Mr Young's favour.

"Statistically we've got a better than average chance of winning this election with the support of the Asian nation, " he said.

And unlike Mr Wood, who has all but admitted he can't win, Mr Young is confident.

"I must win, I can tell you, I must win."

Mr Young's Labour and National opponents don't appear to be concentrating too much on the New Citizen Party.

Mr Ross said he was focusing on his own party's campaign, while Mr Wood said voters would make a decision on the issues.

"I think people are pretty sophisticated in the way they vote these days, and I would be surprised if, as they seem to be expecting, Chinese voters all flock to the New Citizen Party just because there's a Chinese candidate."