Kaipātiki Local Board candidate Joe Zhou has had at least eight of his billboards vandalised with a racist word. Fellow candidates and friends have helped Zhou remove the words from his billboards. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
A spate of racist attacks on election campaign billboards of Asian candidates in Auckland last week has left some in the community disturbed and hurt.
First time candidate Joe Zhou, who's running for Kaipātiki Local Board, had at least eight of their election billboards vandalised with racist slurs last week.
Zhou said he felt the racism was not reflective of wider society, but was worried about the negative feelings it may trigger among the Chinese Kiwi community.
Zhou is among six Asian candidates whose billboards were targeted - some had their faces cut out, others had theirs painted over.
North Shore resident Sally Chen said she was disturbed by the racist word on one billboard.
"I was really angry and I feel quite sick, because I was sending my kids to school and to kindy… I don't know how to explain to my kids, and my kids were extremely quiet at that time."
She said she was "heartbroken" when her son came home and told her he was name-called by a kid at school, by the same word they saw on the billboard.
It felt like a wider attack on the community, she said.
"[If] something could happen to the billboard, then it could happen to me, it could happen to every Asian person in the community. It suddenly feels like it is not safe."
Some Asian Auckland local body election candidates have seen their faces painted over or cut out of billboards. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
Another North Shore Chinese Kiwi, who only wanted to be known as Vicky, said racism had been visibly worse over the past two years of the pandemic.
A person deliberately coughed on her and made racist remarks when she was visiting Rotorua, Vicky said.
She appreciated seeing candidates who could represent her community in the local body elections, and felt angry to see the billboards wrecked.
Indian Weekender social commentator Sandeep Singh said one south Asian candidates' billboard in Manurewa had racist words written over it.
It also happened in previous elections, Singh said.
"Every time there is a racist attack, it makes the job of the candidate difficult when they step out of their house and go out for their campaigning.
"These kind of news are bound to play behind their brains and would affect their confidence," he said.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said while there's always been a degree of mindless vandalism around local body election time, the overwhelming targeting of Asian candidates this year was racist and unacceptable.
More representation was needed in Auckland's local government, where more than a quarter of the population is Asian, Goff said. The latest incidents undermined those goals.
He had zero tolerance for this behaviour and felt for the candidates who were targeted.
The outgoing-mayor said he hoped the broader community would report these acts and help police track down offenders.
Several of the incidents have been reported to police.
Official information from police shows 8246 hate-motivated offences have been recorded over the past three years.