When I got word about Bill Shorten’s first live appearance on Chinese social media platform WeChat, I knew the Australian Labor Party was in damage control. To strengthen his appeal, Shorten rolled out Jennifer Yang, Labor’s federal candidate for Chisholm (who is of Taiwanese-Australian heritage) and attacked the Coalition government’s attempts to water down Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and the emergence of hate speech, and professed the need to preference One Nation last and his commitment to a multicultural Australia.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Labor candidate for Chisholm Jennifer Yang on Wednesday. Credit:AAP

Make no mistake about it, the remarks of NSW Labor's now former leader, Michael Daley, about “Asians with PhDs taking young people’s jobs” were offensive. And, yes, they did ruffle feathers in Chinese-Australian and Asian-Australian communities. But it is simplistic and naive to suggest those comments were the deciding factor for these voters to turn their backs on Labor in the state election.

When it comes to engaging multicultural voters, Shorten has made the same mistake that most of our politicians make – seizing on multiculturalism and migration as if these are the only issues we "ethnics" and "migrants" care about. Shorten’s WeChat moment is political tokenism at best, a horrible insult to Chinese-Australian voters at worst.

It demonstrates the "us and them" mentality is alive and well in Australian politics.