The first thing that came to my mind after watching the joint Fairfax Media/Four Corners investigation into China’s soft power influence was the Chinese-Australians, their reaction and the Australian public attitude towards us.



As an Australian of Chinese heritage and a member of this community, I can’t help but think about the misconception formed by the wider Australian public . Every time a media story about Chinese influence in Australian society comes up, it is the ordinary Chinese-Australians who ultimately cop it.

First and foremost, what the Australian public needs to understand is that Chinese-Australians are an incredibly diverse and complex group. You’ve got recent arrivals from mainland China to Chinese migrants from south-east Asia to Chinese-Australians who have been here since the gold rush era. Like any other issue, the decisions and actions of a few do not represent our entire community.

When it comes to political donations and influence, Chinese-Australians are not the only group to take part and should not be singled out in a media story on an issue that’s widely debated and contested by the public. Don’t get me wrong, the issues mentioned in the investigation need to be raised and placed under public scrutiny. However, the concern I have is that this story will paint a picture that all current and future Chinese-Australians will behave like Huang Xiangmo and Chau Chak Wing if they decide to get involved in Australian politics. Like all Australians, my community has a right to be engaged in the political process and push for issues that are of concern to us.

There are many ways to develop influence within the political sphere – ranging from lobbying, public relations, getting involved in advocacy groups, joining political parties and standing for pre-selection to run for public office. But in reality it is very difficult for Chinese-Australians and other multicultural communities to break through in political parties. As one of Australia’s largest multicultural communities (4% of the Australian population have Chinese ancestry, and Chinese Mandarin is the second most spoken language after English), there is very little representation in our parliaments. Without representation, it is difficult for Chinese-Australians to engage in the political process through other means, let alone getting their issues across.

Like many multicultural groups, Chinese-Australians are rarely brought into party processes, decision-making, candidate selection and policy development in a meaningful way. Instead, they are seen as a tool to raise funds during election campaigns. Rather than harness and mobilise the diversity of Australians, political parties see multicultural groups such as Chinese-Australians as walking ATMs.

I have publicly said this before; political parties have a fundamental problem when it comes to engagement and outreach with multicultural communities. Parties want them to raise funds but when it comes to pre-selections, they rarely get a look-in, except when an unwinnable seat is available. Many multicultural groups feel donating funds to political parties is the only way to have a say and make a contribution to the political process. As co-founder of Poliversity, I have spoken to many members of the Chinese-Australian community (and other multicultural groups for that matter) who find it incredibly frustrating that political parties come to them only during election campaigns to ask for their vote and for help to raise funds.

Foreign donations need to be banned and donations in general need to be more transparent. Political parties should not be fixated on money and donations to win election campaigns. Elections would be much more cost effective if the parties invested and supported their human resources between election campaigns. Chinese-Australians, like all other community groups, should be invited to provide input into policy development and not be used as cash cows during every election campaign. We have ideas, we have opinions and we should be taken more seriously.

Chinese-Australians have every right to get involved in Australian politics without ever being questioned or disenfranchised because we too are members of the Australian community. We should not be singled out just to make a point.

The lack of transparency in political donations is not a Chinese-Australian problem – it is an Australian problem. As a group, we welcome the opportunity to work with the Australian public to address it.