Photo: RNZ/Tim Collins
Asians are the fastest-growing ethnic group in Aotearoa, but some young Asian voters say their voices are not being heard in this election.
Some voters were concerned that specific issues affecting their demographic were being overlooked and said they wanted to see more engagement from political parties.
Statistics New Zealand estimated there were more than 200,000 Asian Kiwis aged between 20 and 34, and some electorates with the highest number of Asian populations - such as Mount Roskill - were seeing nearly half of their constituency identifying as Asian.
Pok Wei Heng, 26, was voting in New Zealand for the first time since getting his residency last year.
Climate change and social cohesion were at the top of his mind, but he said there were issues specific to his community which needed to be addressed.
He wanted see political parties plan for cultural needs of ethnic communities across sectors like healthcare and employment.
He said he was also looking out for policies which helped foster the relationship between new migrants and tangata whenua.
"How do we, as Tangata Tiriti, find a way to engage meaningfully with Māori as well? … So what's a party that has a track record of sustaining the social fabric of our multicultural communities together with Māori and Pākehā?"
Naomi Simon-Kumar is a 27-year-old researcher in health and science policy, based in New York.
She will be casting a special vote this week and has a number of areas of concern.
"Things like inequality, that's a really big one, rising cost of living, and I'm also thinking of investments in greater social support systems ... but also climate change policy."
However, Simon-Kumar said it was disappointing some issues affecting her demographic had been overlooked - such as the gender and ethnic pay gap.
"It gets lumped under general inequality issues, economic inequality issues, so maybe it gets subsumed into that and it's not as highlighted," she said.
"Which to me is kind of disappointing, because I think it's a pretty relevant platform a party could be picking up to appeal to a very wide audience … Asians and ethnic peoples, we're a growing community, a growing demographic, we're also sizeable and young.
"So I do think it's pretty unfortunate that it hasn't been highlighted."
A report from the Human Rights Commission last year showed Asian women ranked second to last on the income ladder across all groups.
Meanwhile, others were worried the diversity of young Asians had not been acknowledged in the way parties engaged with the demographic.
University of Auckland student Jiang Meichun, 22, said there was a lack of meaningful engagement from the parties.
"The fact of just representation, as in parties think that 'oh we have Asian candidates and that's enough people to vote', or to inspire young people to gravitate towards their party, which is a bit of a hack move I think … I see very few genuine attempts to engage with the nuances, the particular struggles that come with being Asian youth in New Zealand," he said.
"So I would like to see more of a genuine engagement with the specific issues that do concern us."
Young Asians come from a range of socio-economic backgrounds which has not been acknowledged, he said.
"A lot of the times we are being clumped being a white plus voting group ... we're assumed to be educated, high-achieving, concerned about the economy, concerned about everything that upper middle class, white youth voters are concerned about, when that is not the case."
Jiang said transgender rights, climate and environmental issues, and the rights of immigrant workers were some of the issues at the top of his list.
Being born in New Zealand to parents who migrated from China, Jiang said he saw the difference between the generations - with his parents being more fiscally-minded in their voting decisions, and him leaning more towards social issues.
Meanwhile, there were also those who were less concerned about the lack of specific engagement with young Asian voters.
Financial auditor Min Kim, 25, said he preferred parties to take a "balanced approach" towards all groups.
"I am not too concerned about my ethnicity or my age group being represented in politics, I think it [should be] a balanced approach, so no general concerns."
He was looking to broader election issues like the economy and income inequality.
Kim said he felt social issues affecting certain ethnicities could be dealt with at a more local level rather than in the national election.
