It has been over two weeks- ish since election results gave the Labor Party a resounding victory. The Liberals were reduced by almost half in the House of Representatives with Senate results still awaiting confirmation for a few candidates.

In addition, the Nationals split from the Coalition, diminishes the political power for the Liberals even more (although they may be getting back together). The only silver lining for them is that they will have one Asian Australian elected – Leon Rebello for the Queensland seat of McPherson, which was an originally Liberal held seat.

Since the Prime Ministership of Scott Morrison ( 2018 – 2022), the anti-Chinese narratives that China needs to be investigated on the origins of COVID-19, and/or that China is a threat to Australia’s national security has really shown their true colours. This was a reason why the Liberals lost the election back in 2022, where the COVID-19 pandemic racism and the anti-China rhetoric by the government at the time affected how Asian and Chinese Australian communities voted.

This was no different in the 2025 election, where the Liberals were essentially decimated. In both past election cycles these “anti” and racialised sentiments get parroted by mainstream media outlets, commentators, politicians, so-called China experts and of course the China hawks.

These successive losses for the Liberals demonstrate how they have become out of touch with the Asian and Chinese communities and their once conservative views (which traditionally won over many of these communities) are much more discerning, considered and observant as voters.

Of the major bloopers and missteps made by the Liberals during this election campaign was the one just before D-day where Liberal Senator Jane Hume made a non factual accusation on Sunrise that election volunteers working for the Labor Party who were Chinese background might be Chinese spies.

This came after the Sydney Morning Herald alleged that the Hubei Association placed volunteers for the campaigns of Labor’s Clare O’Neil and independent Monique Ryan – both rejected having these volunteers, as the SMH alleged that the associations has links to the CCP. This is currently being investigated by the AEC – but regardless why the hell would Hume make such a generalised and Sinophobic statement- as though it was clear as day true.

Professor Wanning Sun wrote an entire piece on this for Crikey has stated that this may have impacted on why Chinese Australians rejected the Liberals.

Hume’s recalcitrance has not gone unnoticed by many Chinese Australians. Some have said that Hume was merely saying out loud what some Liberal politicians could be saying behind closed doors. Some observe that Hume’s comments triggered memories of Liberal Senator Eric Abetz, who, a few years ago, interrogated Chinese Australians and demanded their loyalty — an episode which, according to one WeChat commentator, is still “sending chills down my spine, she said.

This angered many Chinese Australians who are on WeChat with one user creating images on AI- expressing how they (who wanted to remain anonymous) and many other Chinese Australians feel about the situation. Yes, they honour both Eric Abetz and Jane Hume.

But not all is doom and gloom. With the cultural shift in the makeup of the Australian Parliament, things are looking up in that department. In the House of Representatives, there are now ten MPs who have been elected or re-elected who have an Asian background. Five of those have some sort of Chinese heritage, making them 50% of the Asian Australian House of Representatives make up. Also, don’t forget, one of the most senior ministers in the Australian government Senator Penny Wong (Foreign Minister) has a Malaysian Chinese background.

With both the Chinese vote and those elected into Parliament having political power, what does that say about the changing demographics?Osmond Chiu, research fellow at Per Capita and a member of the Labor Party did an analysis on the cultural diversity in Australian Parliament. He told the Guardian Australia that the number of Chinese and other Asian Australians who will be serving in Parliament is going up which is a very good thing.

We’ve seen a big increase in Chinese Australian representation, so in the last parliament there were only three people of Chinese heritage elected in the parliament, and that’s going to be doubled in this parliament, he says.

We’re seeing people from south Asian backgrounds and Asian representation more broadly.

So what does all this mean? Where it is promising to see the increase in Chinese and Australian representation in Parliament, this does not necessarily translate to how effective Australian politics engages with the Chinese and other Asian communities in Australia.

It is clear as day that the Chinese community (that makes up around 5.5% of Australia’s population according to the ABS) is an important voting bloc which can sway the results of the election as the majority of the community reside in electorates which are critical for political parties to win over.

This is why engagement and interaction with the community needs to improve significantly. Chinese Australian voters rejected the Liberal Party because they got lazy and took the community for granted. Where the Labor Party has the community’s favour for now, there is a danger they could fall into the same trap.

Header image via Jason Yat Sen Li Facebook page