List MP Melissa was born in Korea and grew up in Malaysia before moving to Australia and finally settling in New Zealand with her family in 1988. She has an MA Honours (First Class) in Communication Studies.

Melissa has more than 20 years journalism experience, including a five year stint with the Sunday news and writing for numerous publications including, the NZ Herald, The Listener and various other magazines. She spent fifteen years as a TV Presenter and Producer on TVNZ Asia Dynamic and Asia Down Under and with 600 episodes to her credit either in front or behind the camera Melissa has now turned to her other passion, politics.

Melissa’s interest in politics started at an early age when she campaigned for Class president in Grade I at school. She has held many community positions including Vice President of the Korean Society, Vice President of the Korean Women’s Association. Board member of the Asia-Pacific Producer’s Network. An advisor to the National Unification Advisory Council of Korea and she was a member of the Asian Advisory to the Auckland Police.

For Melissa, family is the most important thing “Having my son Ethan was the best thing that I’ve ever done, it has matured and shaped the person I am and God help anyone who hurts him” she says.

Time for a hobby is a luxury since becoming an MP but Melissa does enjoy movies, golf - on the driving range with Ethan - knitting, cooking and writing film scripts.

Top 5 Issues

1. Building a stronger economy
   • Balance the books sooner.
   • Borrow less so we can have lower interest rates for longer.
   • Keep personal taxes lower to encourage hard work.
   • Make New Zealand more competitive so our exporters can sell more overseas and create more real jobs.
   • Encourage savings and investments.
   • Use the mixed-Ownership model to fund infrastructure to help us grow faster.
   • Invest in skills training and tertiary education that gets results.
   
2. Building world-class infrastructure
   • Ultra-fast broadband for greater innovation.
   • More, and better, roads to ease congestion.
   • Investing in more rail and public transport.
   
3. Building a safer New Zealand
   • Staying strong on crime – tougher sentencing, stronger bail laws, and a focus on victims.
   • Keep working to lower the crime rate further so our families are safer.
   • Making our roads safer, so we can keep the road toll lower
   
4. Rebuilding Christchurch
   • $5.5 billion recovery fund
   • Re-establishing essential infrastructure
   • More construction-related training
   
5. Building better public services
   • Better Schools – identifying and helping children falling behind, school reports in plain English.
   • World-class healthcare –more doctors and nurses, more operations, shorter waiting times.
   • Effective welfare- more people back into work, more incentives to work, payment cards for teens on benefits.
   

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