‘Liberal Party can no longer afford to ignore Asian-Australians’
Labor’s Kristina Keneally’s embarrassing loss to independent Dai Le highlights a problem the Liberal Party needs to get a grip on.
Federal Election
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COMMENT
“Australian voters … rarely get it wrong.”
As a longtime Liberal Party member digesting Saturday’s loss, I can’t help but be reminded of what John Howard once told Laurie Oakes after the Liberals lost in a landslide in Victoria.
Instead of panic and gloom, the Liberal Party needs to see the loss as a blessing in disguise, including the valuable lessons about Australia’s culturally and economically diverse voters.
Traditionally, the conservative voter was most represented in predominantly white, affluent postcodes; the progressive voter in working class suburbs.
The Teal and Green wins, however, show the establishment rich and powerful are now at the forefront of left-wing politics, while conservative views are increasingly represented by the aspirational, multicultural communities that left and right-wing politicians (and media) still neglect.
The Liberal Party cannot ignore this fundamental realignment of the electorate.
New Asian-Australian parliamentarians such as Dai Le and Sally Sitou will hopefully dispel the lingering perception that ethnic minority candidates are electoral poison.
This does not mean the Liberal Party should adopt targets and quotas that rob candidates of credibility and create resentment.
It should, however, drive our membership to be more open-minded when deciding on the best person for the job.
This means we must stop running culturally diverse candidates only in marginal and hardluck seats. If Tu Le (who was sidelined as Labor parachuted in Kristina Keneally) is the Labor candidate for Fowler in 2025, we’ll know at least one major party has learned that lesson.
Being more welcoming to culturally diverse voters and candidates means the Liberal Party must stop captain’s picks and candidates who pander to “latte lefty” voters.
Perhaps the best aspect of the election results were losses by such Liberal candidates, who were imposed on party members and the electorate in seats with once-safe double-digit margins. Many of the Liberal Party’s rank and file membership and faithful supporters refused to campaign for someone they did not have a say in selecting.
Some have simplistically suggested losses in seats with large Chinese communities were because of the Liberal Party’s supposedly harsh and tough rhetoric on China.
This again shows poor cultural understanding, oblivious to the fact that many Chinese migrants have little affinity with the Chinese government. Many came here for a better life than that in a Communist regime, but also include Taiwanese-Australians like myself, and Chinese-Australian friends whose families have been here for so long even their grandparents don’t speak Chinese.
Chinese-Australians are also incredibly sophisticated voters, even if limited by their command of English. It is far more likely that they turned their backs on the Liberal Party for abandoning fiscal responsibility and failing to uphold the personal and religious freedoms that drew them to Australia in the first place.
Beyond multicultural communities, many progressive commentators and left faction leaders believe the victory of the Teals and Greens is a sign the party must go left. This would leave much of the base politically homeless. That is a recipe for disaster with so many independents and other minor parties coming to fill the void. And no party can ignore that great awakening of political outsiders, coupled with the profound loss of trust in the media and public institutions.
At the polling booths on Saturday, instead of the usual suspects, I met many normal Aussies with every accent under the sun handing out how-to-vote flyers for One Nation, the UAP, Labor and the Greens. It gives me hope that so many are passionate enough to engage with the political process, even if I disagree vehemently with them politically.
This greater focus on multicultural and more conservative voters is something the Liberal Party might need to address sooner rather than later. The Simon Holmes à Court-backed “climate independents”, should they achieve the balance of power (as I write this, Labor may yet secure a sliver thin outright majority) may not be here for long.
If they don’t hold the balance of power and cannot push through their agenda, they may fizzle out. If they do succeed, their climate policies could financially devastate not only the multicultural working class but also many voters in Teal seats who will not tolerate higher energy costs, unlike their wealthy MPs. That also may see them out, and we must be ready.
Jeffery Wang is a Liberal Party member, diversity advocate and IT sales executive.
Originally published as ‘Liberal Party can no longer afford to ignore Asian-Australians’
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