Gladys Liu first captured the attention of federal political watchers at her campaign launch in April 2019 for the eastern Melbourne seat of Chisholm, when she held up a shopping bag printed with a map of the area and pointed out all the places she had lived and worked.

"I love Chisholm!" Liu declared enthusiastically to a packed crowd of blue-shirted supporters, many of them Chinese-Australians, as a beaming Scott Morrison looked on.