Federal politicians in battleground seats where large Chinese-Australian communities could sway results have flocked to Mandarin-language social media app Rednote to engage with voters ahead of the election.

Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton were in the Melbourne suburb of Box Hill last weekend to celebrate Lunar New Year with Chinese-Australians and make spending promises in Liberal MP Keith Wolahan’s seat of Menzies, which will be hotly contested at the election to be held by May 17.