I know it’s not done to talk about anything important these days but too bad:
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is under pressure to adopt a more nuanced approach in the Coalition’s attacks on Beijing, with new analysis revealing massive swings against the Liberal Party in seats with high numbers of Chinese-Australian voters.
The Australian can reveal the Liberal Party review into its disastrous campaign – led by former federal director Brian Loughnane and opposition frontbencher Jane Hume – will look at how to win back Chinese-Australians who abandoned the party on May 21.
…Senior Liberal Party sources say the post-mortem into the Chinese-Australian voter backlash would focus on the Morrison government’s anti-China rhetoric, which peaked ahead of and during the campaign.
Despite acknowledging the serious threat posed by Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army’s hostile actions, party figures say not enough was done to separate voters of Chinese heritage from the former government’s aggressive pushback against Beijing.
…New Australian Bureau of Statistics census data overlaid with election results shows above-average swings against the Liberal Party in electorates with high numbers of Chinese-Australians.
While Liberal strategists expected an electoral backlash, the scale of revolt from Chinese-Australians has been linked with Labor and independents winning a swath of seats in Sydney and Melbourne.
Chinese Australians should not be conflated with Beijing. However, there are pressures here to influence Australian foreign policy which includes financial and personal links to family in China that can be coerced.
There are three of four federal electorates that are now effectively Chinese-Australian controlled. This is probably no bad thing. A minority holding the majority to account on China is healthy.
That said, the question needs to be asked how large a community of this nature is healthy for the democracy as Cold War 2.0 intensifies?
Can it be so influenced and influential that it can tip the scales on the national interest vis China?
I don’t know but I wish somebody would ask the question rather than just reloading the mass immigration cannon.
Perhaps the Liberal review might canvas that question instead of salving its own wounds.
