When Carlos Cheung arrived in New Zealand as a nervous 16-year-old schoolboy from bustling Hong Kong, life here was a massive culture shock.
He was one of just a few overseas students in a hostel filled with out-of-town boarders, and was surprised to find how much the city shut down at night and at weekends.
Twenty-seven years later, he wouldn’t live anywhere else.
“I’m a Kiwi now,” he says. “I think people, if they decide to make New Zealand home, we are all Kiwis, we are all together as one.”
The partnership behind the politics
This belief and a desire to “give back” for the life Carlos, 43, grew to love in Auckland is what, in time, drove the medical science research fellow into politics. But it was Kiwi-raised wife Fiona Lai, 40, who really sealed the deal.
“She’s my first love,” he explains. And it was when Fiona successfully stood for an Auckland Council local board seven years ago that he got his first taste of electioneering. They went doorknocking together, with baby Renée in a front pack.
The powerhouse couple met in their university days through a church group. With their daughter now at primary school, they juggle a busy family schedule and a shared determination to represent their communities.
For Carlos, that takes him to Wellington during the week, where he represents Mt Roskill in Parliament, making him only the second Chinese-born MP to have won an electorate seat.
Cooking with love
“Carlos is a great supporter when he’s around,” says pharmacist Fiona. “He’s also a great cook – I do the clean up!”
Carlos explains it’s the least he can do, given the sacrifices Fiona makes to keep the home fires burning.
“I love, love, love food,” he enthuses. “This is why I love cooking. I mean, obviously as an international student, you come here and you start learning how to cook.”
“That’s why I gained weight,” jokes Fiona. She says his Cantonese soups are particular favourites.
“It’s quite sweet of Carlos that even if he has a one hour, 30-minute gap between his next meeting, he would still come home, whip up a soup, boil it and then he would leave. By the time we come home, there’s a soup for us. Or maybe it will be a Japanese-style curry on the couch in front of the TV.”
Those precious moments, the couple says, keep their relationship strong, focusing on quality over quantity.
“And I’m very happy that she loves my cooking!”
A voice for diversity
When Carlos is out of town, Fiona keeps him up to date with Renée’s activities through video clips. A handy overlap in local community events he attends as MP and she goes to as a third-term board member means “we can still hang out together as a family as well”, she adds.
Carlos says he feels a special responsibility as an MP to represent Asians, who are a majority in his notably diverse marginal electorate, even though this has seen him exposed to abuse and taunts of “go home”.
Much like female MPs, those of non-European ethnicities tend to cop a disproportionate amount of unwelcome attention on social media. Carlos has learned to deal with this as he advocates for opportunities for all.
Watching the country become more diverse and society for the most part embracing this is what he treasures.
Fiona says she is proud of his determination to build a better life for the family and the country.
Building a better future
Carlos, who obtained a PhD at the University of Auckland, turned down overseas opportunities in his field of diabetes-induced cardiovascular disease.
“My life priority changed from trying to save the world, or make a difference to the world, to family,” explains Carlos of his marriage in 2010.
To build their future, he pivoted from underfunded research in academia to the business world, starting a property management company. Over time, doing volunteer community work, including in food banks and a refugee education centre, the couple was drawn to the idea of being involved in finding bigger-picture solutions to help people beat the poverty trap.
Fiona says she is keen to see more Asians and women step up into governance roles.
“I always say, if the opportunity comes, seize that opportunity and go for your life, try your best… If you’re not giving your whole, it’s actually not a good example either.”
Carlos says he wants Renée, new arrivals and generations to come to grow up in a country where they aren’t judged by their skin colour, their way of speaking or face invisible glass ceilings in the job market.
“I want to create an environment that Renée will have equal opportunity and she will be judged on her ability or her character.
“This is what I want to put my hand up for as a politician. That is what motivates me.”
