This weekend was a big one for NSW with a number of by-elections happening for the seats of Bega, Monaro, Strathfield and Willoughby. For the seat of Strathfield ( Inner West Sydney), was a Labor seat before the by-elections and now that super Saturday of by-elections are over, it is likely that the new state member for Strathfield will be Jason Yet-Sen Li.
This is major news because it adds another quality person to the ranks of politicians who are of Asian Australian background. We all know there needs to be more, and this is a great sign for hopefully more to come.
With just over 30% (31.1%) of the votes counted, Li who will be representing Labor has already won 54.4% of the vote and is ahead of Liberal candidate Bridget Sakr who has 45.6% of the vote. According to ABC News, Labor will likely retain the seat with Li at the helm.
Li made a speech yesterday and said that he was “hopeful and confident” that the result will go in Labor’s favour. More importantly, Li addressed in his speech about the issues around racism as a whole, but also the racism his campaign team and crew have experienced. Here is a quote he said:
“Race is used as a partisan political weapon for short-term gain but with devastating long-term consequences.”
“It is not OK that the patriotism of candidates or the Labor Party is questioned with no basis in fact”
It won’t be for another 2 weeks or so before all the results are concrete and solidified, but confidently, you can congratulate Li for the positive result!
Images via ABC News 24 (screen grabs)