China fallout? Reid all about it in must-win NSW seat

When partisan rockets launch in parliament, the toxic fallout can settle on communities far from Canberra – as a visit to the marginal seat of Reid shows.

‘Jimmy’ is angry about the ‘broken relationship’ with China. Picture: John Feder

When partisan rockets are launched in parliament, the toxic fallout can settle on communities a long way from Canberra.

As pandemic restrictions ease, the pulse of Burwood in Sydney’s inner west is nowhere near its pre-pandemic bustle, leaving voters and business owners wary about rising living costs, the void in skills and spending due to the absence of foreign students, and the ice age in Australia-China relations.

Amateur dumpling maker Scott Morrison dropped in two weeks ago for Lunar New Year celebrations and to hustle support for Fiona Martin in the marginal seat of Reid, just days before she crossed the floor to doom the ­Coalition’s religious freedom bill.

Louie Zhang and his family run Smiling Dumplings in a Burwood kitsch mini mall and he breaks into a wide grin when asked about the Prime Minister’s kitchen skills.

“He burnt a few,” says Zhang of a task often done by visiting Chinese and Taiwanese students.

Zhang notes a few days after that early evening stroll for the media in Burwood, where almost half of all residents have Chinese ancestry, the Prime Minister announced Australia would reopen to all fully vaccinated visa holders from February 21.

“Good timing, right,” says Zhang of the move he hopes will provide a boost to business. “ABCs”, that’s Australian-born Chinese in Zhang’s telling, aren’t focused on stories about Chinese Communist Party interference or insult trading in parliament.

“They don’t care about politics, unless it directly influences business, the economy or their jobs,” he says of his contemporaries.

Just after noon on Thursday this week, as the heat gnaws like a furious mob, the Covid-19 testing clinic on Burwood Road does not have a single soul waiting to be swabbed. Some older people are reluctant to leave home.

Yet fear of another virus, stirred up by missiles such as “Manchurian candidate” and “spy” and ASIO warnings about foreign interference – has left some angry and afraid.

“The blowback on Chinese-Australians has been enormous,” says Tony Ishak, who runs ethnic broadcaster World Media International from Burwood.

“They’ve been singled out for attention because of the deteriorating relationship between Canberra and Beijing. I know pillars of the community, professionals, business owners who’ve been spat on in the street simply because they’re Chinese,” he says.

Louie Zhang at his dumpling restaurant in Burwood with employee Pauline Qian and sister Elaine, right. Picture: John Feder

“My Chinese-Australian friends are fed up with it. They wonder, ‘How could this happen here?’ They’re angry about the loose talk of politicians and the ­resentment is tremendous.”

Reid is diverse in its diversity, with stunning bays, parklands, privileged schools, jerry-built apartments, the Sydney markets and Olympic precinct.

Within ethnic, religious and family groups there are often vast attitudinal gaps, making the electorate about as disparate as urban Australian can be. Reid’s eastern end at Drummoyne is high-income and home grown; moving west, Five Dock has the nation’s highest concentration of Italian born, while Burwood and Strathfield house migrants from India and Korea, as do Newington, Lidcombe and ­Auburn at the seat’s edge.

As electioneering ramps up, signs of rhythmical calm can be found in Burwood Park, an oasis amid the green shoots of colour-block high-rise flats and glassy ­office towers.

Under large shelters at opposite ends of the park, two groups of a dozen people are sashaying through routine tai chi steps, swishing limbs, whirling to their own impulses, yet never stepping beyond the limits of group co-­ordination.

Winnie Yau, a public servant on extended leave, migrated from Hong Kong 30 years ago. The morning’s exercise seems to have put a spring in her step, as she scrolls through her phone to find the photo of her with Kevin Rudd when he visited the area during the recent state by-election campaign. Yau is pragmatic and wise to what’s going on in geopolitics but wishes Canberra was playing it differently.

“Australia is an independent country and should display an independent attitude,” she says.

“Australia always follows America. This is not good for our country.”

Council employees are setting up a mobile playground in the shade under trees. The park will soon be filled with prams, hatted toddlers, and parents of Asian ancestry, some of whom are living in cramped apartments.

They have their hands full with Play-Doh, making sure their sons and daughters don’t roam beyond the play area.

Politics is not top of mind, but Covid-19, education, aged care and cost of living are mentioned as issues they worry about. Some of them came here to study, got degrees, then worked and gained permanent residency.

They say they’re not aware of what Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese have been saying about China. Not one of the dozen carers approached by The Weekend Australian had voted in last Saturday’s Strathfield state by-election, either because they were not in the state seat or citizens.

Scott Morrison tries his hand at cooking dumplings. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

More vocal, however, are a group of older people, now gathering shopping trolleys, bikes and bags after an hour of power moves. Jimmy, who declined to provide his family name, is the only male among the dance diehards on the smooth concrete floor.

“We need a good relationship with China for our economic future,” he says, as three of the women join in, lamenting the state of bilateral relations.

“It’s a broken friendship,” says one. “We want things to get better.” Who’s to blame, though? After all, Beijing has imposed sanctions on our exports.

“Mr Morrison is being silly,” says another woman in the group. “He should be better. Why does he have to do everything that America tells him to do?”

Jimmy says more respect should be shown to the larger nation, with less furious talk that is threatening our multiculturalism.

“China does a lot of good for the Australian people, by buying products,” he says.

“We need our economy to grow, especially after Covid, which has left people poorer.”

Seasoned political observers in the area believe this week’s febrile China rhetoric in parliament will have electoral consequences for the major parties.

A perceived drift away from Morrison’s 2019 promises for religious protections, made to local Christian and Muslim leaders after marriage equality was legislated, may also bite the incumbent Liberal, whose margin is 3.2 per cent. Or it may not, if a charge that Labor is too “woke” sticks.

Albanese holds the adjoining seat of Grayndler, and the party is confident Homebush local Sally Sitou will appeal to young and professional women.

If Morrison has not burnt the Liberals’ chances, like the dumplings, he’ll be transiting often through a seat he can’t afford to lose – as will Albanese, who must win in places like Reid to win ­government.