Background and career
Melissa Ji-Yun Lee (Korean: 이지연; born 1966) is a New Zealand politician. She was elected to the House of Representatives as a list MP for the National Party in the 2008 election. She served as the 11th Minister for Economic Development and 2nd Minister for Ethnic Communities from November 2023 to January 2025. She also served as the 28th Minister for Media and Communications from November 2023 to April 2024.
Lee was born in South Korea and grew up in Malaysia before moving to Australia and then to New Zealand in 1988 with her family. She has a MA Hons (First Class) in Communication Studies. Based in Auckland, she spent twenty-three years in journalism, including a five-year stint at the Sunday News and writing for numerous publications including The New Zealand Herald and The Listener. She was also the producer of the TV magazine series Asia Downunder.
In November 2008, Lee became a List MP in the New Zealand Parliament. Her maiden speech included sections in English, Māori, and Korean. In English, she mentioned crime, education, and anti-Asian racism issues in New Zealand. In the Māori section, she mentioned the history of Māori first coming to New Zealand by canoe from Hawaiki and compared it to her own migration to New Zealand by aeroplane. Near the end of her speech, she thanked, in Korean, all the people that had given her support "simply by virtue of [their] shared heritage". Lee became the second Korean, and first Korean woman, to win the election to a non-Korean national legislature. (The first Korean elected to a foreign national-level office, Jay Kim, became a member of the United States House of Representatives in 1992.) A poll conducted between 10 December 2008 and 19 April 2009 by the Spanish newspaper, 20 minutos (20 minutes) ranked Lee as the world's 51st most beautiful female politician.
During the first months of entering Parliament two Conscience votes were taken, Melissa Lee voted against the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill and the Liquor Advertising (Television and Radio) Bill. On 16 April 2009, Lee announced her candidacy for the National Party nomination in the 2009 Mount Albert by-election. She defeated the previous local National candidate, Ravi Musuku, to win selection for the National Party on 4 May 2009. On 13 May 2009, Lee told a candidates' meeting that the SH20 Waterview Connection could divert criminals from South Auckland away from the electorate. Lee apologised the next day, saying "if South Auckland people (find) my comments offensive, I apologise. It wasn't about them. It was about criminals." Prime Minister John Key later said the remark was a "stupid statement to make". Later that day she apologised again saying, "I apologise unreservedly for the comments I made regarding South Auckland... I sincerely regret my remarks." In the by-election, Lee attracted only 3,542 votes, coming a distant second to Labour's David Shearer's 13,260 votes. During the by-election, allegations were made in May 2009 that Lee's production company Asia Vision had spent New Zealand on Air money making a promotional video for the National Party ahead of the 2008 election. Lee called the allegations "ridiculous", saying that all work on the video was done by volunteers. The Green Party referred the video to the Electoral Commission, saying that it should have been declared as an election expense. An investigation conducted by New Zealand on Air later cleared Lee of the charge of misuse of funding. Later in 2009, Lee used NZ$100,000 of contingency funding to increase the markup for Asia Downunder in violation of her contract with New Zealand on Air, which she described as "an innocent error". In April 2011, Lee courted controversy when, after she had made a speech supporting the controversially rushed-through copyright law 92A, it emerged that hours earlier she had tweeted "Ok. Shower... Reading ... And then bed! listening to a compilation a friend did for me of K Pop. Fab. Thanks Jay" which a journalist argued appeared to contradict their stance on law 92A.
During the 2011 general election, Melissa Lee increased her electoral vote in the Mt Albert electorate but failed to unseat David Shearer, who retained the seat by a margin of 10,021 votes. On 20 December 2011, John Key announced that Lee and John Hayes would become Parliamentary Private Secretaries, a role not in use for several years. Key appointed her to the portfolio of Ethnic Affairs, given the heavy workload of Judith Collins as the newly appointed Minister of Justice. In January 2014, Lee was appointed Chairperson of the Social Services Select Committee. There were several conscience votes during the 50th Parliament surrounding issues of the legal alcohol purchase age and Same-Sex Marriage. In these votes, Lee voted against the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 and voted in favour of retaining the Alcohol Purchase age at 18 in the Alcohol Reform Bill.
During the 2014 general election, Melissa Lee failed to win the Mt Albert electorate. Her Labour opponent David Shearer retained the seat by 10,656 votes, a moderate decrease on the previous election, while National won a substantially increased party vote, winning the party by 3,536. After the 2014 election, Lee was appointed to chair the Commerce Select Committee while also retaining her position as Parliamentary Private Secretary for Ethnic Communities, the position being renamed to reflect the change in name of the eponymous Ministry and Minister, Lee has been joined by Jacqui Dean as a Parliamentary Private Secretary since the retirement of John Hayes at the 2014 Election. Lee also has one Private Members Bill waiting to be drawn from the ballot: the Accident Compensation (Recent Migrants and Returning New Zealanders) Amendment Bill. In 2015, New Zealand First Ron Mark was criticised by members of all parties when he told Lee to go back to Korea in parliament.
