NZ First’s Craig Stobo: Why I tick Pacific Islander on census form

Craig Stobo grew up in Oamaru, the son of a pharmacist and nurse of Scottish and English heritage. At Otago University, he debated on teams with former Climate Change Commission chair Dr Rod Carr and fellow NZ First candidate Michael Laws. He’s worked all his career in New Zealand, Australia and spent time in the Pacific.

The ex-financier says he ticks “Pacific peoples” on his census form. “I was born in in an island on the Pacific – I was born on the South Island of New Zealand. I’m a Pacific Islander,” he says. “So why don’t we think about ourselves as Pacific Islanders, and embrace our brothers and sisters to the north of us? I have no affinity with being a European.”