Below is a paper addressed by two chinese community leaders, Anthony Pun and Daphne Lowe-Kelley at the "CHINESE IN AUSTRALIAN POLITICS COLLOQUIUM" that was hosted by University of Technology Sydney China and Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centres on Wednesday 8 September 2010.
I have known Anthony and Daphne for many years and quite often bumped into each other at the different occasions in Chinese community or other cultural events.
People might or might not know that there are a lot of divisions and community groups in local ethnic communities including Chinese community. Like anywhere else in this world, inevitably, there are always various interesting, even turn-dirty politics between groups or individuals, given that everyone holds different prospectives or intentions. But when it comes to the community issues and its stance towards main stream society, this loud and large community could turn to extremely shy and quiet that it seldomly make its voice out clearly and publicly. I would say, only a few groups and individuals in this community would be able to have the communication ability and more importantly, the gut to get their voice out on behalf of their group, or part of the community, to respond to relavant issues wisely and fearlessly. And Dr Anthony, National President of Chinese Community Council of Australia is definitely one of them.
Also, former SBS Radio Cantonese program group leader Frances Lee is another role model who always speaks with honest and integrity. He 's got not much public titles, but he's someone people in the community respect greatly. Dr Peter Wong, a retired member of legislative council NSW, a great community leader and founder of the Unity Party is still actively helping with community groups and charity projects, such as ACCF and China Vision.
Regardless whether their article or point of views are right or not, I personally always respect their engaging and brave attitude and their swift responses towards any main stream claims, policies or media coverage that points to the ethnic community or Australian Chinese. They have the advantage in terms of english proficiency, which allows them more capable to communicate and speak out to the main stream society or media. I see this as a truly valuable quality for community leaders, particularly for ethnic backgrounds politicians. We are lucky to live in this free and democratic country but it doesn't mean that ethnic community could take things for granted. In most of cases, we still need to emphasis, pursue and even fight for things we believe fair for us. It's pointless and shamefule to be a community leader and enjoy standing in the lime light of their titles, without the ability to communicate effectively to the main stream.
The "CHINESE IN AUSTRALIAN POLITICS COLLOQUIUM" that was hosted by University of Technology Sydney China and Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centres was a great event to attend. Although I only attended the evening Q&A session, I found it not only intriguing and challenging for the speakers and people in the community to think about our future involvement in Austtralia politics, but also a rare but wonderful opportunity for main stream people to gain some insight of Chinese community.
Because it's not only about Chinese, or about politics - after all, we are all Australian. It's our honor and responsibility to care about our nation's politics, for our own interests and for our future.
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The psyche of the Chinese community in Australian party politics
by Anthony Pun and Daphne Lowe-Kelley
In a free and democratic country like Australia, immigrants come from all over the world to make a new life and create better opportunities for themselves and their descendants. Since there is no discrimination in the education system and business opportunities, there should not be any significant difference between Australians of Chinese, Italian, Greek or Lebanese descent in business and professional endeavours. Yet, when it comes to political participation and Australian party politics, the Chinese Australian community does not fare well and is not as representative as it should be.
This paper will examine the history, size and composition of the Chinese community in Australia and then attempt to identify some of the factors contributing to the small number of Chinese Australians playing an active role in Australian party politics especially at the state and federal levels.
The Chinese Australian community
The 2006 census shows Australia's total population as 20,848,760. As the Chinese Australian community is a very diverse one, ranging from those whose forbears came to Australia in the 19th century to the more recent arrivals of the last few decades, the Chinese Australian component can only be estimated by considering such factors as ancestry, country of birth and language spoken.
When considering ancestry, the 2006 census, shows that the most commonly nominated ancestries were Australian 37.15%, English 31.65%, Irish 9.08%, Scottish 7.56%, Italian 4.29%, German 4.09%, Chinese 3.37%, Greek 1.84%, Dutch 1.56%, Indian 1.18%, Lebanese 0.92% and Vietnamese 0.87%. Therefore, on this basis, at the last census, there were 702,603 people with Chinese ancestry in Australia.
Of Australia's total population in 2006, 24% (approximately 5 million) were born outside Australia, the five top ranked countries being: United Kingdom 1,153,264, New Zealand 476,719, Italy 220,469, Peoples Republic of China 203,143 and Vietnam 180,352. To estimate the approximate size of the Chinese Australian community, one needs to add a significant percentage of those born in: Malaysia 103,947, Hong Kong 76,303, Indonesia 67,952, Singapore 49,819, Taiwan 31,258, other Southeast Asian countries, plus the Australian born Chinese.
According to the 2006 census, more than three quarters of the Australian population spoke English only. The six most commonly spoken languages after English were Italian 316,895, Greek 252,226, Cantonese 244,553, Arabic 243,662, Mandarin 220,600 and Vietnamese 194,863. When the Cantonese and Mandarin are added together, Chinese becomes the number two language spoken by 465,153 people.
CALD Political Statistics
In surveying the cultural and linguistic diversity (CALD) of politicians, the names of parliamentarians in the New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Federal parliaments (42nd Parliament) were used. Any names which do not appear to be Anglo-Celtic in origin, are described here as non-Anglo-Celtic (NAC).
In NSW (List 38), an examination of the Legislative Assembly of 93 members showed 20 members have NAC names and of these, there are 9 Italians and 2 Greeks. In the Legislative Council of 30 members, there are 11 NAC names including 3 Italians and 1 Greek. In the Ministry of 21 persons, there are 2 Italians and 2 Greeks. Thus, in the NSW Parliament, 26% have NAC names, with Italians making up 9.8% and Greeks 2.4% of the total representation. In contrast to this, there are no Chinese in the NSW Parliament as the three Chinese Members of the Legislative Council have already retired or resigned.
A survey of the Victorian Parliament's 132 members shows 19 or 14% with NAC names which includes 7 Greeks, 5 Italians and 1 Chinese. Of those with NAC names, Greeks are 37%, Italians 25% and Chinese 5%.
Of the 89 members in the Queensland Parliament, there are 12 NAC names with no Greeks or Italians but 1 Chinese. Of the 13.5% with NAC names, the Chinese constitute 8%.
In the Federal Parliament (42nd Parliament), there were 21 NAC names out of 150 MPs. Of the NAC names, 4 were Italians (19%) and 4 Greeks (19%). In the Senate, out of the 76 members, there were 9 NAC names, with 2 Italians, 1 Chinese and no Greeks.
These parliamentary statistics indicate that the Greeks, Italians and other CALD Australians have proportionally more numbers in Parliament than the Chinese.
Discrimination and the White Australia Policy
So, despite their earlier settlement and current larger population numbers, why are the Chinese Australians less prominent in party politics than other CALD Australians, such as the Italians, Greeks or Lebanese?
History, racism and discrimination help explain why Chinese Australians did not enter politics until fairly recently. Although there were significant numbers of Chinese during the gold rush periods starting in the 1850s in NSW, Victoria and then Queensland (up to 3.3% or 38,348 of the total population in 1861), most of the Chinese were sojourners and not permanent residents. Combined with discriminatory legislation against the Chinese by the various states and presented by the media as 'sub-human'many returned to China. From a high of 88,000 in the 1880s, the number of Chinese in Australia had fallen to 25,000 in the 1911 census.
With the advent of Federation came the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, otherwise known as the White Australia Policy. This, together with Australia's post World War II immigration policy aimed at British and European migrants, kept the Chinese community numbers proportionally low for about 70 years.
Post World War II Migration Trends
Whilst Italians, Greeks and Lebanese came in large numbers in the years following the end of the Second World War, the Chinese immigrant population remained small. However, with the relaxation of the White Australia Policy and the introduction of the Colombo Plan Scholarships in the 1950s, this started to attract foreign students of Chinese descent from Southeast Asian countries to study in Australia. Many of these students who studied in Australia stayed behind whilst others went to other western countries.
The abolition of the White Australian Policy in the early 1970s led to a significant increase in non-European migration, mostly from Asia and the Middle East. East Timor and Vietnamese refugees of Chinese descent started coming in the 1970s, followed by mainland Chinese (PRC) students in the 1980s and those uncertain about Hong Kong's future after 1997 came in the 1990s. Since then, family reunions and those coming initially on temporary visas have added to the number of Chinese in Australia.
Negative psyche
It is generally recognised that a CALD community pre-requisite for political participation depends on the presence of a sizeable population and having a settlement period over a few generations before they have the knowledge and sophistication to participate in party politics.
The "older" Chinese Australians, mainly of Cantonese descent, who had been subjected to a number of adverse social policies such as the poll tax, lack of Chinese wives, White Australian Policy and longer periods of residence required before naturalization, had long developed in their psyche that they had no opportunity to participate in politics and government. So, they concentrated on doing well in business and the professions and this "regression" remained with most of them until their awakening in the 1980s.
Chinese Australian Politicians
William George 'Bill'O'Chee (whose father was Chinese and his mother Irish-Australia) was the first Australian-born Chinese to serve in the Federal Parliament. He was a National Party member of the Australian Senate representing Queensland from 1990 to 1999. At 24 years of age, O'Chee became Australia's youngest senator. He was able to relate to the wider Australia community as well as help raise the profile of Chinese Australians and their contribution to Australia.
Many of the students who came here to study in the 1950s, 60s and 70s were from Southeast Asian countries which were former British colonies. Many of them were "English" educated and found fewer restrictions in Australia about joining politics compared to their country of origin or birth. In Australia they found freedom of expression and democracy. This was the main group that ventured into the political arena from the late 1980s.
Prior to Chinese Australians entering the political arena in NSW, a community organisation, the Australian Chinese Forum (now known as the Chinese Australian Forum) was established in the mid-1980s to encourage Chinese Australians to participate in public decision making bodies including parliament. The membership of this organisation was predominantly Asian-born Chinese who came to Australia on student visas, completed their tertiary studies here and then took up residence in Australia. The political parties came 'a-wooing' - some joined the Liberal Party and others the Australian Labor Party.
Helen Sham-Ho came to Australia from Hong Kong, as a student in 1961 and became the first Chinese-born Australian parliamentarian when she was elected as a Liberal Party member to the NSW Upper House in 1988. She resigned from the Liberal Party in 1998 and served as an Independent until 2003.
The first Asian-born migrant in the Australian National Parliament, was Senator Tsebin Tchan, a Victorian Liberal Party member of the Australian Senate from 1999 to 2005. He came to Australia on a student visa in 1958 and became a citizen in 1971.
Cambodian-born Hong Lim came to Australia in 1970 and studied at the University of Tasmania and Monash University. He was elected as the member for Clayton in the Victorian Legislative Assembly and has held the seat for the Australian Labor Party since 1996.
Henry Tsang, an architect, joined the Australian Labor Party and served as Deputy Lord Mayor on the City of Sydney Council from 1991 to 1999. This was his stepping stone to being a member of the NSW Legislative Council from 1999 until his resignation in December 2009.
Peter Wong left China in 1950, lived in Indonesia for about 10 years, before arriving in Australia at the age of 18, with his parents. He studied medicine and became a General Practitioner in 1974. In opposition to Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, he founded the Unity Party in 1997 and served in the NSW Legislative Council from 1999 to 2007.
Michael Choi was born in Hong Kong and came to Australia in 1976. He practised as an engineer prior to his election in 2001 as the Australian Labor Party member for the seat of Capalaba in the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
The most notable Chinese Australian politician is Senator Penny Wong, the Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water. Born in Malaysia, she came to Australia as a child with her Australian mother. She has been an ALP Senator for South Australia since 2002 and is the first Asian-born federal minister.
Of the above, Hong Lim in Melbourne, Victoria and Michael Choi in Brisbane, Queensland are the only ones who have been elected to the lower house. All the others owe their seats to the position on the ticket given them by their political party.
The three federal politicians, Senators Bill O'Chee (National), Tsebin Tchan (Liberal) and especially Penny Wong (Labor) appear to be Australian first and Chinese second and are accepted by the wider Australian community as such.
The three federal politicians, Senators Bill O'Chee (National), Tsebin Tchan (Liberal) and especially Penny Wong (Labor) appear to be Australian first and Chinese second and are accepted by the wider Australian community as such.
The others are generally viewed as Chinese first and Australian second and this impression is reinforced by their accented spoken English, their heavy involvement in Chinese community affairs, together with their close links to China.
Increasing participation at the Local Government level
A number of Chinese Australians have served or are currently serving as councillors in the area of local government politics. One of the notable earlier ones was Harry Chan, born in Darwin in 1918, an accountant and businessman, who was elected to the Darwin City Council in 1959. He then entered the Legislative Council for the Northern Territory as the member for Fannie Bay in December 1962. In 1965 he became the first elected president of the Legislative Council and a year later was elected mayor, thereby holding the two most prestigious elected positions in the NT. He died of cancer in 1969. Another Territorian Alec Fong Lim served as the 11th Lord Mayor of Darwin from 1984 to 1990.
Hong Kong-born John So came to Melbourne at the age of 17 to complete his secondary education and then went on to the University of Melbourne. He was first elected as a City of Melbourne councillor in 1991 and then went on to serve as Lord Mayor from 2001 to 2008.
Alfred Huang was born in China and came to Australia as a student in 1965. He was first elected to the Adelaide City Council in 1992 and went on to serve as Lord Mayor from 2000 to 2003. The University of South Australia awarded him with an honorary doctorate degree for his contribution to the University and to the State of South Australia.
In recent years, an increasing number of Chinese have become councillors at the local government level. Many of these are from the second wave of students from the 1980s and 1990s and unlike the first wave, this group includes many from the PRC. There are currently 14 local government councillors of Chinese descent in NSW. A number of these were initially Unity Party candidates but some of the more ambitious ones wanting to enter state parliament have switched their allegiance to Labor or Liberal.
Succession problems
Politicians of Chinese descent appeared to make a good start in the early 1990s when there were 3 in NSW, 2 in Victoria, 3 in Queensland, 1 in the Northern Territory and 1 in South Australia. Over a period of 10 years, we lost 5 of them and they have not been replaced by Chinese Australians. Why has this happened?
In observing the effectiveness of these politicians over the last 20 years, one realises that being a successful politician is not easy and there is much to learn. The ones who have had a greater degree of success are those who are fully accepted by the wider Australian community and are not seen as token Chinese community representatives.
Major political parties treat the Chinese community as cash cows and milk them with the assistance of their party faithful. Some of them behave like "Uncle Tom" whilst others tend to play exclusion games by disallowing participation of certain community leaders who may be a threat to their political career. It would appear that candidates are preselected on the basis of their fund raising capabilities and not talent. However, the perception of talent or suitability from a political party point of view could be directly opposite to the view of the community. Also, each political party has its own hierarchy or rank and file, and it would take time, effort and patience to reach the top. For new comers please queue up.
Many Chinese business people want to be connected to prominent politicians for a variety of reasons and there is no shortage of middleman arranging "photo" opportunities. They should be a bit more concerned about policies before they donate to the political parties. If they were united as a bloc, they could use their donations as bargaining chips for pre-selection of candidates as well as influencing policies.
Traditionally the Chinese suffer from parental prejudices about politics, the police force, army and any uniformed groups including scouts. There is no money in uniformed careers and politics is considered to be an unreliable and even dangerous occupation.
There is also a unity problem with such a broad diversity within the Chinese Australian diaspora, from established Chinese immigration since the gold rush (mainly Cantonese), the Chinese from former British colonies in Southeast Asia (including Hong Kong) and those from China and Taiwan. There are a lot of cultural, linguistic, religious and political thinking differences among the sub-groups in the diaspora. Hence, unity is difficult to manage.
What is our future then?
Our only hope is to encourage our young to join the political parties and hopefully they will learn about the fundamentals and the philosophy of each political party. They will have to go through some form of apprenticeship and work their way up. Learning to be a party apparatchik is a fundamental and serious business.
To ensure continuity of candidates, there needs to be training and mentoring programs. Once they launch their career in politics, the Chinese community should support them by not extracting "blind loyalty" but understanding that they should not only be representing the views of the Chinese community but they need to be more representative of all Australians. This concept is difficult to instil.
Business people should be united and they should use their money as a bargaining chip to influence policies and voting patterns. They should also fund Chinese "think tanks" to work on government policies affecting the Chinese community and get feedback on what the Chinese community should lobby, who to vote for and how to consult with decision makers.
We should also learn from the Italian, Greek and Arabic speaking communities about their political success. Finally, Chinese community organisations should not be polarized for any political party but support Chinese candidates whatever political party they choose to be in. There are two important sayings in politics, (i) "Rooster today, feather duster tomorrow" and "If you sleep with the winning political party today, you could be a widow tomorrow".
Authors
Malaysian-born Dr Anthony Pun OAM completed his studies in Australia with a PhD from the University of NSW. He worked in St Vincent's Hospital Sydney as a Chief Medical Scientist, and later switched to administrative law serving 5 years as a member of the Immigration Review Tribunal and 3 years on the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. Dr Pun was President of the Australian Chinese Community Association of NSW 1989-1992, life member and Chair of the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW 1997 and 2001-2003, and National President of the Chinese Community Council of NSW. He is a keen advocate for multiculturalism in Australia and has been an Australian Day Ambassador since 2001. In 2010 he received the Premier's Community Service Award (the Jack Wong Sue Award) for anti-racism and multiculturalism work in and beyond the Chinese community.
Daphne Lowe-Kelley is a New Zealand born Chinese, whose father had to pay the poll tax of £100 in 1921. A graduate of Victoria University of Wellington and Wellington Teachers' College and post graduate of UTS Sydney, she has spent most of her adult life living and working in Sydney. Daphne's interest in her Chinese ancestry and community was reinforced after her first trip to China in 1958. In addition to her mainstream volunteer work, Daphne continues to play a very active role in the Chinese Australian community and is currently President - Chinese Heritage Association of Australia, Vice President - Chinese Women's Association, Honorary Secretary - Chinese Community Council of Australia, and a life member and Honorary Secretary -Australian Chinese Community Association of NSW.