in August 2012. Bakshi later attended a protest against Louisa Wall's bill stating to the crowd of around 250: "We understand that God made us and we are firm believers [that] marriage is between a man and woman, I tell you, the majority of the National Party MPs voted against this bill. There were only three Labour party MPs who voted against this bill. So you can understand who believes in Christianity, who believes in this bill. It is the National Party." Bakshi later conceded that in fact a majority of National MPs had voted for the bill. In 2016 Bakshi faced criticism for comparing international students to a commodity such as fridges. In an interview, following a question about treating Indian students as "economic commodities", Bakshi said "if New Zealand gets fridges from China and they're faulty then they send them back". In Bakshi's fourth term, the National Party was in Opposition and he was the party's spokesperson for Internal Affairs (2017–2020) and Ethnic Communities (2020). He voted against the End of Life Choice Act 2019 and the Abortion Legislation Act 2020. During the 2020 New Zealand general election, Bakshi contested the Panmure-Ōtāhuhu electorate (which had replaced the Manukau East electorate due to boundary changes). He again lost the electorate seat to Labour candidate Jenny Salesa, by a final margin of 18,626 votes. Bakshi had been raised in the National Party list, going from 32nd to 24th, but the National Party as a whole fared poorly in the election, receiving only 33 seats of which only 10 went to list MPs. Bakshi did not rank high enough on National's party list to be re-elected, and so left Parliament. References External links Profile at New Zealand Parliament Profile at National party (archive copy from 2011) Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi official site (archive from 2010) Twitter account (archive from January 2020) 1964 births Living people New Zealand National Party MPs New Zealand Sikhs New Zealand people of Punjabi descent New Zealand list MPs Indian emigrants to New Zealand Delhi University alumni Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives 21st-century New Zealand politicians Candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election Candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election Recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman