Carlos Cheung

Chun Ho Carlos Cheung (Chinese: 張雋浩; Cantonese Yale: Jēung Jeun-houh) is a New Zealand politician. He was elected as a Member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for Mount Roskill, representing the National Party, in the 2023 New Zealand general election. Cheung has worked as a medical researcher and owned two property management companies.

Career

Cheung was born in Hong Kong and moved to New Zealand as a teenager. He attended Auckland Grammar School and the University of Auckland, where he studied science and eventually graduated with a PhD in biological science. His 2013 thesis was on diabetes-induced cardiac disease, and his doctoral advisors were Garth Cooper and Shaoping Zhang. He worked as a medical researcher but decided to leave research due to difficulty finding funding. He set up Lifestyle Property Management in 2014 and later started a second company, Enfield Property Management.

Political career

Cheung was announced as National's candidate for Mount Roskill in March 2023 and was also a National Party list candidate, ranked 48th. On election night, Cheung won the electorate with an 1,564-vote lead over incumbent Michael Wood. Mount Roskill had been regarded as a safe seat for Labour, with Wood holding a majority of 14,000 votes in the 2020 election, leading to Cheung's win being called "one of the stand out upsets of the election". Cheung is the second Chinese-born MP to hold an electorate seat in New Zealand, the first being Pansy Wong.

Views and positions

Cheung stated that he plans to "reduce cost-of-living pressures and restore law and order in our community". He also planned to reduce costs for landlords.

Personal life

He is married to Fiona Lai, who was elected as a Communities and Residents candidate to the Puketāpapa Local Board in 2019 and 2022. They live in Mount Roskill.