Libs alienated Chinese Australians. Labor listened, learnt, and got their votes

Chinese-Australian voters had an impact on Saturday’s election in Victoria. They not only helped Labor retain the marginal seats of Box Hill and Ashwood, but they also turned Glen Waverley from Liberal to Labor by a tiny margin. And even though the Liberals kept Kew, it’s possible the swing to Labor was due to Chinese-Australian voters.

The Liberal Party still has no clue

On the eve of the election, Sky News’ live coverage showed conservative presenters such as Peta Credlin becoming increasingly disgruntled. Their faces got longer and more sour as Daniel Andrews’ win became increasingly certain. With obvious frustration, Tim Smith, the retiring Liberal candidate for Kew, told viewers that Chinese voters are offended by the Liberals’ anti-China politics and tend to take it “personally”, even though the party’s criticism is aimed at the Chinese government, not Chinese communities per se.

After the May federal election, the Liberals realised they have a problem with so-called Chinese voters who they were “desperate to win back“. But they couldn’t seem to figure out how.

Smith’s remarks indicate the Liberals still have no clue. Blaming Chinese-Australian voters for their tendency to take it “personally” shifts blame from them to the voters, and betrays an utter lack of understanding of the roots of a profound sense of alienation on the part of many people in Chinese-Australian communities.

It seems the Liberals still haven’t got the message that despite their criticism mainly targeting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such a concerted anti-Chinese stance is directly correlated with the hostility and anti-Chinese, anti-Asian racism experienced by ordinary Chinese Australians, some of whom may also be highly critical of the CCP regime.

In other words, people in these communities have no option but to take it personally, because the anti-Chinese racism directed at them was experienced on a personal level. Their main issue with the Liberals is not that they’re critical of the CCP, but that the Liberals see China as Australia’s national enemy and approach it solely from the lens of strategic threat.

The other message that has so far eluded them is that it’s not just first-generation Mandarin-speaking voters who are switching away from them. Many voters from other Asian backgrounds — Malaysian Australians, Singaporean Australians, for example — have also borne the brunt of widespread anti-Asian hatred stoked by the right-wing media and politicians.

As I have observed before, racists don’t bother to find out if you’re from China or support the CCP before shouting abuse or, worse, inflicting physical violence.

Lessons for Labor NSW strategies

With the NSW election in March, Labor strategists must figure out how to effectively engage “Chinese voters”. The best way is to see people from Chinese communities as not simply voters, but first and foremost as fellow Australians.

Having realised the importance of the China factor, this election Victorian Liberals took to the Chinese social media platform WeChat, bombarding the platform with political campaign advertising, including advertisements for then Liberal leader Matthew Guy.

In contrast, Labor’s strategies aimed to engage at sustained grassroots levels. A Chinese-Australian Labor supporter who worked hard during the campaign told me that she and her colleagues had engaged with Chinese-Australians through myriad community activities, including arts, food, seniors clubs, tai chi groups, music groups, ping pong, badminton, etc: “A Labor volunteer, an aunty, invited all of us to their Shanghai opera performance in December, and I told them we will definitely be there.”

Victorian Labor strategists realised they may face challenges given the redistribution of electorates in the eastern suburbs with many Chinese-speaking voters. So local Labor MPs sought to engage Chinese Australians through community organisations such as seniors’ centres, local arts groups and schools. Chinese-language booklets were distributed, explaining Labor’s policies and listing Labor’s election promises.

A number of Chinese-speaking assistants helped create WeChat name cards for these local Labor MPs, and these cards could be distributed to anyone who wanted to “befriend” and communicate with them individually on WeChat.

Labor’s Chinese-Australian supporters in Victoria told me they can trust Premier Dan Andrews. They cited examples of Andrews turning up in Glen Waverley at the beginning of the campaign to seek the support of Chinese communities (which was reported in the local Chinese-language media). They also told me about Andrews having a conversation with a Chinese nurse to get feedback about the experience of health workers.

As a young Chinese-Australian Labor supporter said: “I do not think the Liberals really can reach this level of community engagement. They are still immersed in this ‘anti-CCP has led to our failure’ kind of bullshit.”

Chinese-Australian volunteers a secret weapon

While first-generation migrants from China were more engaged in the recent federal election, there has been an unprecedented level of volunteerism for the Victorian election. While I was staying in Melbourne during the week before voting, a few people I wanted to see were too busy volunteering.

Getting involved as a foot soldier in a campaign is a way of becoming an active citizen. Some volunteers told me that while they wanted their preferred candidate to win, it was being involved that mattered.

“From making phone calls to door knocking, from engaging with local people to having heated debates with them, I have learnt a lot in a short period of time. Not bad, not bad at all,” said a volunteer, reflecting on his experience working for Labor’s candidate Wesa Chau for Prahran, a seat that stayed with the Greens. 

Another volunteer who described himself as a “conditional Labor supporter” said volunteering is always more important than the result. It has become part of his life journey. He also said Labor’s Chinese-Australian volunteers were superior to their Liberal counterparts: “What impressed me most was the Labor volunteers’ spirit, attitude and good behaviour. The Coalition has never had such a high-quality team.”

Compared with his NSW counterpart, Andrews had a significant head start in terms of winning Chinese-Australian voters. Victoria was the first and only state that showed interest in becoming part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. And like Mark McGown in WA, Andrews has always enjoyed more support from the local Chinese communities than other premiers.

Although Victoria’s lengthy lockdowns appeared to put off many voters in western electorates, many Chinese-speaking voters in the eastern suburbs were more understanding of the need to adopt strict quarantine measures.

No doubt there will be post-election stocktaking and analyses, but it’s clear the election has already provided food for thought for all parties.