Anti-China rhetoric damaging to Liberals
Andrew Brown |
The Liberals have been urged to rebuild the party’s relationship with members of Australia’s Chinese community as a key priority in the wake of its election defeat.
A review of the party’s election campaign found anti-China rhetoric by the previous government had hurt the coalition’s standing.
The report identified criticism by the former government of the Chinese Communist Party as having been perceived by voters as criticism of the Chinese community more broadly.
“There is a particular need for the party’s representatives to be sensitive to the genuine concerns of the Chinese community and to ensure language used cannot be misinterpreted as insensitive,” the review said.
“There are more than 1.2 million people of Chinese heritage living in Australia today. Rebuilding the party’s relationship with the Chinese community must be a priority during this term of parliament.”
The Liberals suffered a more than five per cent swing nationally at the May election and also lost 18 lower house seats.
Swings against them were higher in electorates where there were more voters from a Chinese background.
The top 15 electorates by levels of Chinese ancestry had a swing against of 6.6 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent in other areas.
The review said the Liberals continued to underperform at the ballot box among culturally and linguistically diverse communities, including those from a Chinese background.
“The party must build and strengthen its relationships over this term of parliament with CALD communities,” the review said.
“This is an important task which the whole parliamentary team – including patron senators – and the party organisation should play a role in.”
Among the 49 recommendations laid out in the post-mortem, the Liberals were urged to develop an outreach program for MPs and senators to culturally diverse communities.
The review also identified a need for the party to appoint additional bilingual staff.
AAP
