An Auckland councillor says the vandalisation of his election billboards is "unacceptable and childish".
Paul Young, who is seeking re-election in the Howick Ward, has had more than a dozen of his billboards damaged this month, he said. Flyers with his photo and the words CCP, a reference to the Communist Party of China, were also distributed at supermarkets.
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He told Newshub more than 14 billboards had been damaged in 36 hours.
Initially, he thought the billboards may have come down due to bad weather. But when his team went to fix them they noticed they had been deliberately damaged, he said.
After receiving positive feedback from members of the community after he first put the signs up a few days earlier, Young said on August 20 and 21 he got calls alerting him to missing or downed billboards.
The vandalism followed an incident earlier in the month where he was alerted to a flyer posted at a supermarket showing his face and the letters CCP written on it.
"It was only one, so I didn't really think it was a problem. [I thought] maybe people just don't like me," he said, before he realised there were more than one.
Young didn't even know what the CCP reference meant at first, and needed to ask his daughter, he said.
"I think someone tried to mislead people that I'm a member [of the Communist Party of China]."
Young is Taiwanese, a country that itself has a complicated relationship with China. He has lived here for decades and his children are born here, he said.
"I'm not a member. I have lived in New Zealand for 30 years. I think it's such a beautiful country. It's my home."
Young said he had no idea who committed the vandalism, but thought it was possibly racially motivated as he had noticed damage to other billboards belonging to Asian or Pacific Island candidates too.
He said he had reported the incident to police and that the vandalism was "ridiculous, unacceptable and childish."
"I don't feel very comfortable," he said.
"It's uncomfortable because I don't know what their next step will be."
Young said he would be replacing every damaged billboard.
Newshub.
