The fiftieth anniversary of the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Australia and the People’s
Republic of China is an opportunity to review the links between our two
countries.
What follows is an account of one issue indirectly connected with this: participation by Australians of Chinese heritage in government affairs as
elected representatives. This account gives most attention to the national
level and the election of 21 May 2022. Chinese names have been used where these
are publicly available.
Background
Australia is home to about 1.4
million Chinese Australians, just over five per cent of the population. Their
experiences are as diverse as their views: many were born in Australia, with
lineages that span generations of Australian history. Others have migrated more
recently from China or Southeast Asia.
Diplomatic relations between
Australia and China resumed with a communiqué signed
in Paris late on the evening of 21 December 1972. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam made this the first decision to be implemented
after his government was elected only three weeks before on 2 December. It was a
significant moment in the relationship between Australia and China. The communiqué
followed Whitlam’s visit to China while he was still opposition leader in July
1971 when he met Chinese Premier Zhao Enlai 周恩来. While the visit was mocked by then Prime Minister William McMahon, subsequent
events including Henry Kissinger’s later visit showed Whitlam’s foresight.
Ambassadors were exchanged in
early 1973. The 50th anniversary of the Paris communiqué is the
opportunity to look at the many facets of the Australia-China relationship not
just the participation of Chinese Australians in elected political positions.
Participation in political office is not the only measure of a successful
community, but it is a measure of the confidence to participate and be accepted
in that role.
1973 marked another
milestone for Chinese Australians and other non-white communities. The 'White
Australia Policy’ was formally abolished by the Whitlam Government after
operating for some 70 years. The policy had begun to be dismantled during the
previous decade under the Liberal administration resulting in an increase in
migration by overseas Chinese from places such as Hong Kong, Malaysia and
Singapore. Those wishing to migrate from the People’s Republic of China,
including students, could only do so after formal diplomatic recognition
provided a means to do this. (See further reading in item one below.)
Going further, Al Grassby the Minister
for Immigration in the Whitlam Government issued a reference paper entitled ‘A
multi-cultural society for the future’, coining the phrase and defining the
concept. Australians
now come from nearly 200 countries and represent more than 300 ethnic
ancestries. One in four people in Australia (26%) were born overseas.
The history of Chinese people in
Australia pre-dates 1972 of course. (See further reading item two below.) Within
a generation of white settlement in 1788, migrants from China were working in
the colony of New South Wales. The earliest documented arrived in 1818. He
married in 1832, changed his name to 麥世英,‘Mak
Sai Ying’ in Cantonese, and was known as John Shying. The mid-century gold rushes attracted thousands more with many staying on
to make lives as merchants, artisans, shepherds and agriculturalists.
The
Australian system of government
Australia is a representative democracy and one of the oldest liberal democracies in the world. The key
feature is that all adult Australian citizens are equally entitled to participate
in Australia's democratic political system, not just to vote but also to
compete for election. Australia works as a federal system in which state
governments are not agents of the federal government but are equally sovereign in their
respective domains. Local governments, which may be designated shire, town or
city, fall under sovereign state jurisdiction and not under the federal
government.
Australia is also a parliamentary democracy. It was formed in 1901 from a federation of six states (former British colonies) which, together with two self-governing territories, each have their
own constitutions, parliaments, governments and laws. The Australian
Constitution establishes the Federal Government and defines the role of the
Parliament, the Executive Government (the Prime Minister and Ministers) and the
Judiciary (courts). The Executive Government comes from within the Parliament
in contrast to the United States, for example, where the Executive Government
is not answerable to Congress.
The role of the parliament is to consider
and make laws including taxation and government expenditure and scrutinise the
executive. There are two chambers of the Australian Parliament; the House of
Representatives where members are elected for a defined area and the Senate, a
house of review where members are elected to represent their state or
territory. Each state and territory have similar systems as do local (city)
governments overseen by their respective state governments, though Queensland,
the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory have only one ‘chamber’.
The three largest political parties
are; the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party of Australia, and the
Nationals. Labor is Australia’s oldest party, established in 1901, and in 1904
formed the world's first workers' party government. The Liberal Party was formed
in 1944 and the Nationals in 1920. Since 1949, the Liberal Party and the
Nationals have often formed government as a coalition. There are several
smaller parties and an increasing number of independents. The largest of the
minor parties is the Greens who polled well in the 2022 national election.
Local
Government
There are 537 local government councils
Australia-wide, more than half of which are in rural, or remote areas and are
structured with only one chamber. The trend of increasing participation by Chinese Australians as elected
officials is evident in looking at the major state capital city local
government areas. In my Council area, for example, the deputy major is a Chinese
Australian who has been on the Council since 2016. The increased participation
by Chinese Australians is in some ways a predictor of participation in State
and Federal parliaments.
Two of the current ten members of
the Sydney City Council are Chinese Australians. Robert Kok is a lawyer and
three-term City Councillor. He was first elected to Council in 2008 and served
as Deputy Lord Mayor from 2011-2012. He is Malaysian-born and migrated 30 years
ago. H. Y. William Chan is a Sydney architect, who was elected recently and is
a first-generation migrant from Hong Kong. Going back in time, Henry Shiu-Lung
Tsang OAM 曾筱龙
was Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney (1991- 1999) as well as a member of the New
South Wales Parliament and was born in Jiangxi Province but left during the
post-World War Two upheavals. These examples show the variety of backgrounds of
Chinese-Australians.
The Melbourne City Council
comprises a lord mayor, deputy lord mayor and nine councillors. Three of the
nine councillors elected in 2020 are Chinese Australians. Kevin Louie first
elected in 2008 was born in Hong Kong and his parents were from Jiangmen in
Guangdong Province. Interestingly, his grandfather was born in Bendigo,
Victoria, and later migrated to China. Jason Chang was elected in 2020; Philip
Le Liu was elected in November 2020 and previously elected in 2016. Earlier, high-profile
Hong Kong born businessman John Chun Sai So AO 蘇震西
served as the 102nd Lord Mayor. He was the first Lord Mayor in the city's
history to be directly elected by voters; previously, the Lord Mayor was
elected by the councillors. He is also the first Lord Mayor of Melbourne of
Chinese descent. First elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2004, So is the
second-longest-serving Lord Mayor of Melbourne, serving for seven and a half
years. Prior to John So, David Wang Neng Hwan 王能焕 (1920-1978) came to Australia in 1942 and became
a prominent merchant and Melbourne’s first Chinese-born councillor. Younger Chinese-Australians in politics tend not to use their Chinese name in
promotional material, though it is clear they retain pride in their ancestry.
Alfred Huang Guoxin AM 黄国鑫 was born in Chengdu and elected to the
Adelaide City Council in 1997. He became the Deputy Lord Mayor three years
later from 2000 to 2003. He was elected the first Chinese-born Lord Mayor of an
Australian Capital City and promoted Adelaide as a destination for business, investment
and study.
Brisbane City Council has the
largest number of Council members in local government in Australia with 26 area
representatives and 27 councillor positions including the Lord Mayor who is
directly elected by residents. Steven Huang is the only counsellor with a
Chinese background. He arrived from Taiwan in 1988 as a 12-year-old. He is fluent
in Mandarin and understands Cantonese and is a Lord Mayor’s representative for
multicultural communities. Huang also stood as a Liberal candidate this year
for the Federal seat of Morton in Brisbane. He remarked that ‘despite
being one of Australia’s most multicultural seats, Moreton has never had a
federal representative born overseas.’ He was unsuccessful, however, with the seat being retained by the Labor
candidate with an increased vote. The outcome is likely to be a result of his
party affiliation which waned across the country.
There are 12 elected members who
represent the businesses and residents of the City of Hobart Council in
Australia’s smallest state. There are no Chinese-Australian members at present
and have not been in the past; however, two of the current Council members have
a south Asian background.
Alex Fong Lim AM 鄺鴻銓
(1931-1990) was the eleventh Lord Mayor of the City of Darwin, the capital city
of the Northern Territory, serving from 1984 to 1990 and the country’s first
Chinese Australian Lord Mayor. His grandfather sailed to Australia with
friends in a sampan 舢舨 from Guangzhou 廣州 to Darwin in the 1800s. His daughter Katrina Mary Fong Lim was also Lord Mayor from 2012 to 2017. Prior
to 1972, the case of Harry Chan Tien Fook OBE is worth noting. In 1959 he was
elected to the Darwin City Council and was Mayor from 1966 to 1969.
He entered the Legislative Council for the Northern Territory in 1962 and in 1965
was unanimously chosen by his colleagues as the first elected president of the
Legislative Council; an office he held until his death in 1969. He was the
first Chinese in Australia to hold such positions.
State and
Territory Parliaments
The Australian Capital Territory has
a 25-member Legislative Assembly. None record having a Chinese background. Last
year Elizabeth Lee, who has a Korean background, became leader of the Canberra
Liberals, raising the profile of Asian-Australian representation and cultural
diversity leadership. A common way of framing the increasing role of Chinese Australians as elected representatives is to see it as an expression of
multiculturalism and the increase of Asian Australians in representative
government. Jieh-Yung Lo, director of the Centre for Asian-Australian
Leadership at the Australian National University, sees the significance of
Lee’s election as showing that ‘Asian Australians can also be the leaders of
our nation, willing to set the agenda…’ In terms of civil society, Canberra’s honorary ambassador Sam Wong AM 黃樹樑 is best known for developing the city’s multicultural
festival.
New South Wales
The Parliament of New South Wales
has two chambers, the Legislative Assembly with 93 members and the Legislative
Council with 42. The table below shows members with a Chinese background.
|
Name
|
Party /
comment
|
Chamber
|
Background
|
Term of
office
|
|
Wesley Joseph
Fang
|
Nationals, Chinese-Australian
member of his party in the NSW Parliament.
|
Council
|
Born in
Australia, Australian and Singapore-Chinese background.
|
9 August
2017-current.
|
|
Dr Geoffrey Lee
|
Liberal, Minister for
Corrections.
|
Assembly
|
Born in
Australia, Australian, of Southern-Chinese background.
|
26 Mar 2011-current.
|
|
Jenny Leong
|
Greens
|
Assembly
|
Australian-born Chinese.
|
28 Mar 2015-
current.
|
|
Jason Yat-Sen
Li, 李逸仙.
|
Labor
|
Assembly
|
Born in Australia
to parents from Hong Kong.
|
12 Feb 2022-
current.
|
|
Helen Wai-Har
Sham-Ho OAM,
何沈慧霞.
|
Liberal, later
Independent.
|
Council
|
Born in Hong
Kong. First Chinese-born Parliamentarian.
|
19 Mar 1988 -
28 Feb 2003.
|
|
Henry
Shiu-Lung Tsang OAM, 曾筱龙.
|
Labor
|
Council
|
Born in
Jiangxi.
|
27 March 1999-3
December 2009.
|
|
Ernest Wong, 王國忠.
|
Unity Party, then Labor
|
Council
|
Born in Hong
Kong.
|
23 May 2013-01
Mar 2019.
|
|
Dr Peter Wong
AM, 黃肇強.
|
Liberal, then founder
of Unity Party.
|
Council
|
Born in
China.
|
27 Mar 1999-23
Mar 2007.
|
Helen Sham was the first
Australian Chinese to win a seat in the Legislative Council of New South Wales
in 1988. Jason Li was the only person of Chinese ancestry to be elected to the
1998 Australian Constitutional Convention, though not the only one to stand. He
ran as a candidate for ‘A Multi-Cultural Voice’ which supported Australia
becoming a republic.
Northern Territory
The Legislative Assembly of the
Northern Territory is made up of 25 elected members and has one chamber.
|
Name
|
Party
|
Background
|
Term of
office
|
|
John Leonard ‘Jack’ Ah Kit
|
Labor, several
ministerial appointments including the first indigenous minister from 1995 to
2005.
|
Born in the
Northern Territory. Aboriginal and Chinese descent. His grandfather migrated
from Guangdong.
|
7 October
1995 – 16 June 2005.
|
|
Ngaree Jane Ah Kit
|
Labor, several ministerial
appointments including multicultural affairs.
|
Born in the Northern
Territory. Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Chinese descent, and
daughter of Jack Ah Kit.
|
27 August 2016–current.
|
|
Richard Soon
Huat Lim
|
Deputy Leader
of the Country Liberal Party.
|
Born in
Malaysia.
|
4 June 1994 –
9 July 2007.
|
Queensland
The Queensland parliament consists
of one chamber, the Legislative Assembly which consists of 93 Members.
|
Name
|
Party
|
Background
|
Term of
office
|
|
Michael Choi
Wai-Man, OAM
|
Labor
|
Born in Hong
Kong.
|
17 Feb 2001-23
Mar 2012
|
South Australia
The Parliament of South Australia
consists of the 47-seat House of Assembly and the 22-seat Legislative Council. Only
one person with a Chinese background has been identified.
|
Name
|
Party
|
Chamber
|
Background
|
Term of
office
|
|
Jing-Shyuan
Lee
|
Liberal, Parliamentary
Secretary Multicultural Affairs, Trade and Investment and Small Business.
|
Council
|
Born in
Malaysia.
|
20 March 2010-current.
|
Tasmania
The Tasmanian Parliament consists
of the 25-seat House of Assembly and the 15-seat Legislative Council. No
members in the current or past Parliaments can be identified as having Chinese
ancestry.
Victoria
The
Victorian Parliament consists of the 88-seat House of Assembly and the 39-seat
Legislative Council.
|
Name
|
Party
|
Chamber
|
Background
|
Term of office
|
|
Hong Lim,
林美豐
|
Labor
|
Assembly
|
Born
in Cambodia of Chinese and Cambodian background.
|
30
March 1996-18 December 2018.
|
|
Harriet
Shing
|
Labor.
Minister for Equality, Regional Development and Water.
|
Council
|
Born
in Australia.First
Victorian minister with a Chinese background.
|
2014
– current.
|
Western
Australia
There
are 36 members of the Legislative Council in Western Australia drawn from six
electoral regions across the State. There are 59 members of the Legislative
Assembly drawn from 59 electoral districts across the State.
|
Name
|
Party
|
Chamber
|
Background
|
Term of office
|
|
Helen Hong Hui Bullock
|
Labor
|
Council
|
Born in Nanjing.
|
22 May 2009-21 May 2013.
|
|
Pierre Yang Shuai, 杨帅
|
Labor
|
Council
|
Born in Harbin.
|
11 March 2017- current.
|
Commonwealth
or National Government
Of the 76 senators in the
Australian Parliament, only one current member has a Chinese background; the
current Foreign Minister. The House of Representatives has 151 members. In
1972, none identified as having a Chinese background, compared to four in the
current Parliament.
|
Name
|
Party
|
Chamber
|
Background
|
Term of
office
|
|
Irina Dunn
|
Nuclear
Disarmament Party
|
Senate
|
Macanese
Chinese/European. Born in
Shanghai.
|
21 July 1988
- 30 June 1990.
|
|
Bill O'Chee
|
National
|
Senate
|
Chinese
father, Irish-Australian mother. Born in Australia.
|
8 May 1990 - 30
June 1999.
|
|
Tchen Tsebin,
陈之彬
|
Liberal
|
Senate
|
Born in
Chongqing.
|
1 July 1999 -
30 June 2005.
|
|
Michael
Johnson
|
Liberal
|
House
|
Chinese/British.
Born in Hong
Kong.
|
10 November
2001 - 21 August 2010.
|
|
Penny Wong,
黄英贤
|
Labour, Foreign
Minister
|
Senate
|
Chinese/British.
Born in Malaysia.
|
1 July 2002 –
current.
|
|
Gai Brodtmann
|
Labour
|
House
|
Born in
Australia. Chinese, German, Irish, and Scottish ancestry.
|
21 August
2010 - 11 April 2019.
|
|
Ian Goodenough
|
Liberal
|
House
|
Born in
Singapore. English, Portuguese, and Malaysian Chinese ancestry.
|
7 September
2013 – current.
|
|
Dio Wang Zhenya,
王振亚
|
Palmer United
Party
|
Senate
|
Born in
Nanjing.
|
1 July 2014 -
2 July 2016.
|
|
Gladys Liu Sim-ngor,
廖嬋娥
|
Liberal
|
House
|
Born in Hong
Kong.
|
18 May 2019 -
21 May 2022.
|
|
Sam Lim Bon
Cheng, 林文清
|
Labor
|
House
|
Born in
Malaysia.
|
21 May 2022 –
current.
|
|
Sally Sitou, 陳莎莉
|
Labor
|
House
|
Born in
Australia. Parents migrated from Laos.
|
21 May 2022 –
current.
|
Trends
and Conclusion
Recently released statistics
highlight Australia’s multicultural nature. The top five countries that
migrants come from in order are; England, India, New Zealand and China with the
Philippines and Vietnam nearly the same. These figures do not show the
ethnicity of the total population but estimates are that about 2 million
Australians have some Chinese ancestry.
Some television commentary on
election night in May 2022 suggested that Chinese Australian votes were
critical in shifting some seats to Labor. However, Professor John
Fitzgerald advised me that there is ‘very little real data informing commentary
on the role of people of Chinese background in the election. On my reckoning, less than 15% of Australia’s 1.4 million Chinese residents are voters born in
the PRC - around 200,000 in total. This is way below the general voter (and
Chinese-Australian voter) participation rate because many PRC-born residents
have opted to … retain their PRC citizenship. This means they are ineligible to
vote. It follows that there's no direct correlation between Chinese community
polling … and actual voting behaviour.’
Dr Kuo Mei-fen from Macquarie
University believes that Chinese Australian voters were chiefly moved to vote for Labor this time for the same reasons that motivated other Australian voters -
they could see through former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his policies
and they acknowledged that Labor had changed some of its own this time around. Dr
Kuo explained that voters from the Chinese community were looking forward to
changing the government and Australia via the democratic system just like other
voters. ‘The policies related to the standard of living were the main concern’,
she said. This
perspective is consistent with findings from a study which concluded that there were four policy areas
that predict a higher probability of a voter switching from
the Coalition: dealing with global climate change; improving disaster relief; improving
the way the political system works in Australia, and addressing issues around
race. In other words, Chinese Australians who changed from
supporting Liberal to Labour did so for reasons similar to those which
motivated other Australians.
Through the last fifty years, there
has been a gradual but definite increase in the participation of
Chinese-Australian voters in the Australian political system as candidates.
This trend should be seen in the wider context of the development of Australia
as a multicultural society, a shift which has been as significant as the
establishment of diplomatic relations with China by the Whitlam Government of
1972. A significant number of Chinese-Australian politicians would probably
agree with the remark of Pierre Shuai Yang who, in his inaugural speech, said:
‘I have the greatest admiration and deepest respect for Gough Whitlam, Bob
Hawke and Paul Keating, who were instrumental in the establishment of
multiculturalism in Australia.’ In my view, the majority of Australians are happy with both trends.
In June 2022, Penny Wong, the new
Minister for Foreign Affairs visited East Malaysia. In her remarks, she
summarised her approach to foreign affairs and pointed to the reason for the
increasing participation in elected office by Chinese Australians: ‘We are a
multicultural and diverse nation. And I hope in part my story can contribute to
reminding people in this region and throughout the world that Australia is a
modern, diverse multicultural society which is keen to continue engaging with
the region.’ Wong’s story encapsulates the success of multiculturalism and her example
will encourage Chinese Australians, and more broadly Asian Australians
and women, to see political office as an option to which they can aspire.
Directly relevant to the
diplomatic relationship between China and Australia, Penny Wong also met with China’s
State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi 王毅,
at the conclusion of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bali in 2022.
Relations have had some tension in recent years, but this meeting hopefully
marks the start of a return to stability. In Wong’s view; ‘Australia and China
have gained much through the strength of our economic and people-to-people
ties.’ Those ties blossomed following the Paris communiqué of 1972 and
hopefully will continue to do so in the next half-century.
Support for multiculturalism as
the key to success for a harmonious society was put by respected paediatrician
Dr John Yu 余森美 AC. On 22 June 2022 he delivered
the inaugural Wang Gungwu Lecture (named after Professor Wang Gungwu 王赓武) in Sydney on what being
Chinese Australian meant to him. He concluded; ‘Australia’s embrace of cultural
diversity has been a great success and something we must all value and protect.
At its core is a recognition of difference as something that should be valued
as a strength.’
The aim here has been to outline the increased involvement of Chinese Australians in elected political
office. This has steadily increased over the last 50 years but seems poised to
increase further along with other underrepresented sections of Australian
society as Australia meets the vision of the Whitlam Government of 1972 to have
closer ties with China and build a harmonious multicultural society.
Further Reading
1. Sun Wanning, John Fitzgerald and Jia Gao, ‘From
Multicultural Ethnic Migrants to the New Players of China’s Public Diplomacy:
The Chinese in Australia.’ In Bernard Wong and Chee-Beng Tan, eds., China’s
Rise and the Chinese Overseas (London: Routledge, 2017), 55-74.
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