Kevin's son-in-law adds to Howard woe

JOHN Howard had enough work on his hands trying to retain Bennelong given his slender margin of just 4 per cent.

JOHN Howard had enough work on his hands trying to retain Bennelong given his slender margin of just 4 per cent.

But now another factor has arisen as he prepares to fight Labor newcomer Maxine McKew for the northwestern Sydney electorate, which has a large Chinese-Australian community.

Not only does Kevin Rudd speak good Mandarin and have a genuine and longstanding interest in Chinese culture, he now has his lawyer daughter Jessica on his campaign team, and she brings with her a potential secret weapon in the form of his son-in-law, Albert Tse.

When the Hong Kong-born Mr Tse, who works for a bank, married Mr Rudd's daughter in May, two popular Chinese newspapers recorded the event prominently and with pictures.

The national Australian Chinese Daily, with a circulation of about 15,000, ran an agency story with the picture.

And the Sing Tao ran the story on page one, with a picture.

Recent census data showed 6.9per cent of Bennelong residents were Chinese-born, and another 3.3 per cent were Hong Kong-born. The combined total forms the second-highest proportion of Chinese immigrants in any federal electorate in the country.

Only the safe Labor seat of Watson, also in Sydney, has a higher proportion.

Yesterday, lawyer and Bennelong resident Justin Li said some in the community were already anti-Howard because they felt he had not stood up for the Australian Chinese in the mid-1990s when Pauline Hanson was a powerful presence in politics.

"And the fact that his son-in-law may be an Asian person will make a lot of Chinese people feel at least he welcomes Australian Chinese people," Mr Li said.

Chinese Community Council president Tony Pun said Chinese Australians were weighing up the appeal of Mr Rudd being "fresh" against a tendency among those in the higher socio-economic bracket to vote Liberal.

While he wouldn't be drawn on Mr Tse's vote-winning potential, Dr Pun said: "Mr Rudd's family have empathy for the Chinese people and it's a good thing."

Sing Tao editor Vincent Ho was unequivocal. "It will do him good," he said of the Opposition Leader's connection by marriage.

But Australian Chinese Daily editor Wilson Ng said Chinese Australians voted on the same issues as everyone else and there was no intrinsic advantage in having Mr Tse as a son-in-law.

Until June, Mr Tse, 28, sat on the board of Therese Rein's charitable foundation. Mr Tse and Ms Rudd live in the same street as Mr Rudd and Ms Rein in the Brisbane suburb of Norman Park.