How Labor won the 'ethnic vote' in Western Sydney
Updated
Labor's more experienced grass roots organisation in western Sydney helped it stem the flow of votes towards the Coalition, but it can no longer rely on the unwavering support of ethnic workers, writes Andrew Jakubowicz.
When Liberal candidate for Fowler Andrew Nguyen declared in the media that the Liberal Party had sidelined ethnic candidates in Sydney's west in the federal election, he was partly right.
Nguyen and the accident prone Jaymes Diaz were removed from the frontline in seats which the party decided were not essential to their victory.
I learned from my research with Liberal Party insiders that a decision was made that hopeless candidates in unnecessary seats would likely cause more collateral damage than deliver benefit. If the election went the way of the most Liberal-favouring polls, they'd be in, and if not, no one would care.
Indeed, Nguyen has now been struck from the Liberal Party website, and also had his party-managed Facebook page zapped; purged as an unperson.
The Liberal Party branch structure through the west and south-west of Sydney is still in its early stages of development. Even though the Liberals have control of Liverpool City Council, and the epicentre of their power-base is now Lindsay, the branches in some of the 'ethnic' seats are poorly developed.
The Diaz family fiefdom of Greenway (Diaz's father is a Blacktown City councillor) is closely interlocked with NSW powerbroker and right-wing Catholic activist David Clarke, with a Filipino network providing the foot-soldiers.
Splits among the Vietnamese in Fowler (15 per cent of the population is Vietnam-born), where right wing powerbrokers had done their best to block the aspirations of popular Vietnamese Australian Liberal activist Dai Le, produced the Andrew Nguyen candidacy.
Nguyen, a long-time local council member and real estate agent, was trounced in Fowler, generating a 9 per cent swing to the ALP's Chris Hayes.
Meanwhile, in Chris Bowen's seat of McMahon, another right-wing Catholic candidate, former police officer Ray King, was also unsuccessful.
While ethnic communities played a critical role in seats that the ALP held in Western Sydney, the Liberals had been building their capacity to take the seats for over a decade. In 2004, despite fisticuffs between supporters of factional leaders Michael Photios and David Clarke, a Bankstown branch of the Liberal Party was established.
By 2009, local Liberals had wrested control of the Lebanese Muslim Association from its long-time ALP-aligned leaders.
In the 2011 NSW state election, Muslim voters, especially Sunnis associated with the LMA, moved strongly against the ALP (prompted as well by Christian Maronite ALP chieftain Eddie Obeid's scandalous behaviour and anti-Muslim activism).
This shift in Muslim sentiment was triggered in 2001 when Obeid blocked an aspiring local Muslim politician from ALP pre-selection, and Sussex St parachuted in his Maronite opponent.*
The Labor member came in for criticism on the matter of finding burial grounds for Muslim dead, an issue that would tip the LMA towards O’Farrell, who promised to deliver and did so. But it would not necessarily hold - no longer rusted on to Labor, they were not attached to the Libs.
However there is no single 'ethnic vote' and as migrants become more successful and socially mobile, they move towards the voting pattern of their economic class and away from the voting pattern of early immigrant workers.
In this election, seats that were heavily Muslim stuck with the ALP. In the lead-up, the LMA had fashioned a strategy to gain support from the government.
Gillard and Swan had been a real problem - they would not meet with nor take seriously the maturing political leaders, and Gillard's own lifestyle was uncomfortable for them. Until the return of Rudd the LMA leadership was shaping up to repeat the 2011 intervention, throwing support behind the Coalition.
Joe Hockey is particularly important, recognising the respect that the leaders craved, and responding positively to their approaches. Carr had met with them as well, offering the abstention on the Palestine issue in the UN as a signal of good intent. While the Coalition was far more pro-Israel, this in fact did not become a game changer.
With Rudd's resurgence and Bowen's return to the front bench, the game changed again. The ALP began listening and came up with a promise of $10 million for an aged care facility.
Hockey matched it, though the Muslims were less impressed when the ALP offered exactly the same amount to the much smaller Maronite community, which the Coalition also matched. Minister Kate Lundy meanwhile delivered a cheque for $130,000 to a Turkish Muslim community for a new hall.
The heart of Muslim Sydney is the seat of Blaxland, where 23 per cent of the population profess Islam, and Watson where the figure is 20 per cent.
In Blaxland, for the Liberals, Anthony Khouri, an Arab Christian, could gain no traction against Jason Clare. Indeed the primary swing towards Clare was 6 per cent. Tony Bourke in Watson held his primary position, but preferences swung to the Liberal Ron Delezio, dropping him back 1.6 per cent.
The seats of Reid and Werriwa each have a Muslim population of 10 per cent, though Werriwa is more 'white'.
Over half the population of Reid speaks a language other than English at home; 13 per cent speaking Chinese. Only Banks has a higher proportion in the West (20 per cent), and Bennelong (18 per cent) across the Harbour.
Banks went to David Coleman, a Channel 9 executive, who ran a strong campaign with the local Chinese community (he had an official Chinese language website) against Daryl Melham for the ALP, who seemed to have given up the ghost well before the campaign began in earnest.
While the ALP head office was leaking against Werriwa member Laurie Ferguson that he was in serious trouble, he was able to hold off the attack from Sutherland mayor Kent Jones, by working closely with the ethnic communities that had been his passion for decades.
This election marks a level of political maturity among ethnic communities, a consequence of social mobility, longevity in Australia and rising education levels.
Where once the ALP took for granted what had been rusted-on working class groups, they can longer do so. The Liberal Party faces a challenge to build real branches that do not become the rotten-boroughs of factional leaders. There are warnings in the swing back to the ALP in some seats for the state Liberal leader.
For the ALP it reveals once more the importance of good-grass roots organisation with systematic targeting and support for ethnic workers, dependable constituency work, and the delivery of outcomes, and getting to people in their own languages on issues that reflect that the candidate both understands and cares about them.
*Editor’s note (September 18, 2013): An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the Labor member was a sister-in-law of Eddie Obeid and was “recalcitrant” on the issue of finding burial grounds. The Drum regrets these errors.
Andrew Jakubowicz professor of sociology at the University of Technology, Sydney. Jakubowicz is editor (with Christina Ho) of For Those Who've Come Across The Seas: Australian Multicultural Theory Policy and Practice, Melbourne, ASP (2013). View his full profile here.
Topics: liberals, alp, government-and-politics, federal-election, federal-elections
First posted
Comments (31)
Comments for this story are closed, but you can still have your say.
Alison Cann:
13 Sep 2013 3:05:00pm
Andrew,
We have a glass half fulL and a glass half empty situation.
If Andrew Nguyen was partly right, he was partly wrong.
All the world is a stage and we all have our parts to play.
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Grant:
13 Sep 2013 3:14:17pm
Both major parties are racist. Only the Liberal Party is more open about it and lets the loud mouthed hotheads run with it. Cory Bernardi and David Jensen are prime examples.
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OntheRun:
13 Sep 2013 5:31:39pm
Are the supporters racist too?
If so you just called about 80% of Australia racist.
Racism is often a deliberate perception by the left to try and garnish votes. Unfortunately such language may be turning people of the left who repeatedly abuse anyone with a different view instead of questioning why.
The Greens are highly discriminatory against Africans due to their migration policy favouring rich middle eastern migrants who can afford to travel.
The actions towards Indigenous Australians can overly treat them as victims which is a form of racism as well. Separate payments and affirmative action is a deliberate decision based on heritage, not merit.
Then there is the hatred of Catholic views which rise in such comments such as "Mad monk" and is another form of racism.
One could view the Greens that way. It dosn't necessarily mean the Greens are bad people. Its just an interpretation of the results of some of their policies.
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Sack:
13 Sep 2013 7:36:48pm
I'm not going to say that 80% of Australians are recist. I will say that 80% of those Queensland born over the age of 65 are racist. Many are very very racist.
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darthseditious:
13 Sep 2013 5:39:05pm
Agree with you to a certain extent. I think it did Mr Abbott no credit that he didn't slap down Bernardi when he had the chance to. If he seriously wants us to trust his new government, he needs to jump on top of the likes of Bernardi. It might also suit him to crack down on that nutter Clarke. His backroom machinations could cause some grief for the new government.
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mike:
13 Sep 2013 7:20:58pm
Where's the evidence that Bernardi is racist? Ideology is not the same as race, and opposition to intolerance, misogyny and homophobia of the Islamic variety is not racism but in fact the opposite.
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Alpo:
13 Sep 2013 3:25:36pm
All the Australian ethnic groups (including the Anglo-Celtic ones) will eventually vote for the politician who best responds to their aspirations and needs of all kinds. Labor has a natural inclination towards embracing multiculturalism (it's in the DNA of Progressive thinking), if the Liberals want to compete in that area, then they must also take multiculturalism seriously. I know that many (l)iberals honestly do, but the current mob has swept to power in part on the back of scaremongering and rejection of diversity... From here, the vote for Labor in Western Sydney and other culturally diverse electorates, is likely to go up.
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PAUL:
13 Sep 2013 5:35:07pm
What's an "Anglo-Celtic". I am originally from Ireland and I am Celtic, NOT "Anglo" anything.
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Alpo:
13 Sep 2013 8:13:52pm
Hi Paul, take no offence mate. I just joined the two together (it is often done in the literature). But although the two ethnicities are indeed different, in Oz and elsewhere to a great extent they are pretty much mixed up... with so much cross-breeding since colonial time, the majority have got a bit of Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh in this country (culturally and biologically)...
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antipostmodernism:
13 Sep 2013 7:53:45pm
Alpo, I have tried to respond to your comment. I do not support multiculturalism and would like to argue at length that NESB is not interested in politics outside of their own concerns, but this is not permitted. Since the election, Aunty has become more intolerant to 'diversity'. Leftists will not see the irony.
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Marilyn:
13 Sep 2013 3:30:47pm
Yet all the creeps ended up voting for people declared to be cruel, inhuman, degrading and lawless in their treatment of refugees.
Pro refugee groups like PUP, the Greens, Andrew Wilkie got votes.
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OntheRun:
13 Sep 2013 5:35:13pm
The Greens lost votes
PUP got more than the Greens lost
Andrew Wilkie lost votes.
PUP is a conservative alternative.
How do you link this to being kind to refugees? If you do about 75% of the population is against it as they voted for the major parties.
I support refugees including those that can not pay foreign criminals. To level the playing field for rich and poor, I don't believe in accepting any person suddenly arriving in Australia as it is discriminatory. It replaces another refugee and fuels corruption.
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Paul01:
13 Sep 2013 6:44:51pm
I am pretty sure PUP gave its preferences to the ALP.
I think Richo said it on Q&A and I remember being surprised.
The nationals are a conservative alternative, PUP is whatever Clive wants it to be.
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patarus:
13 Sep 2013 3:34:58pm
The ethnic candidate is more about embracing the whole electorate they represent rather than the "minority" which is their platform.
I think that after many years of "front-line" experience with ethnic groups that they still have a cultural view of what it is like back home and try and apply the same principles here.
They get caught in the trap of the expectations of their own immediate culture rather than grasping the big picture.
Their are also inherent sensitivities when they have "confrontations" with the "local" element.
By confrontation I do not mean hostile or aggressive or racist but purely in the way the terms are used and the perhaps the way the English language is applied.
The able ethnic candidate may bring a solid following form their own community but they must also be able to articulate a case to all other communities and that includes the majority which will probably be Australians born here educated here and second generation.
If we take food as an example not all Australians embrace "other" cultural food in the same way that other cultures have embraced the Western style fast food chains.
You may see a few Asian style food chains in the areas where there are higher concentrations of the right Asian groups - CBDs and around Unis.
This is a reflection of our electorates.
While it is good or right or opportunistic to have candidates from other diversified backgrounds they still must be able to stand and deliver in the language and manner which is part of the 24/7 media cycle.
I thought that was what the political process was about and that should be addressed in the area party room before the "successful" candidate is let out to fend for themselves in hostile territory.
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Anti-Munafiq:
13 Sep 2013 5:28:47pm
@patarus:
It is extremely difficult to place a cogent grasp of what it means to be an Australian -- the modern independent nation of the Commonwealth of Australia is after all an extremely young country with a migrant history.
In migrant societies, people DO bring their politics with them -- it could be GENERATIONS before age-old prejudices and feuds disappear, even those born-and-bred in Australia.
Best regards,
Anti-Munafik
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Mohammad Islam:
13 Sep 2013 3:56:38pm
My whole family are Labot supporters.
Every other (migrant) family we know are - to the best of my knowledge - also Labor supporters.
Having said all that, this support is not a given. For example, it is difficult for Muslim migrant families to support the Labor Party when it announces that it will support same sex marriage.
The support the Labo party enjoys from ethnic communities is based on the perception that it is the political party for the little poor working man. In contrast, the Liberals are perceived to represent those who live in suburbs like Double Bay in Sydney, Toorak in Melbourne and Peppermint Grove in Perth. In other words, the Liberal party is perceived to represent those who do not have to worry about where the next mortgage payment or meal is going to come from.
Having said all that, the ethnic communities are not idiots nor will they vote for one. The Liberal Party's nomination of Jaymes Diaz is a perfect example of this. Labor voters were not impressed with the circus that was the Federal Labor Party. However, they were by no means willing to vote for a man who appeared to lack substance and intellect.
So, where did that leave some of these ethnic voters? In the same position I was I guess. I turned up to my polling station and I intentionally spoilled my vote because I did not like or trust any of the candidates.
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Keith Lethbridge Snr:
13 Sep 2013 4:00:09pm
G'day Andrew.
Thanks for your article.
The democratic process is surely not designed to win the heart of every voter, but to achieve rational governance in accordance with the will of the majority.
Rational governance could not be achieved if everyone had to be pleased. No government can agree with the suggestions of every individual. Following every democratic election, we will have those who are happy with the result & those who are not. It was ever thus.
Of course, in such countries as North Korea, everyone is happy with the government. No grumbling there. Look how they march & cheer! But in Australia, with all its faults, we have a democracy.
Regards,
Cobber
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Pete:
13 Sep 2013 4:02:14pm
It's no secret the Liberal Party yearns for the days of White Australia. John Howard wanted to get rid of multiculturalism and those within the party who supported it were accused of showing "disrespect for Australian European heritage". Tony Abbott is on record as saying acknowledging the traditional owners of land at official functions is "inappropriate".
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frangipani:
13 Sep 2013 7:03:42pm
Now that is actually a complete misrepresentation of history. First, it was the Labor Party that pushed for the implementation of White Australia. Second, Howard opened up immigration to unprecedented levels of migration from Asia. It's the ALP that's in conniptions right now about dusky-coloured people on 457 visas.
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MJMI:
13 Sep 2013 4:10:59pm
It's all boys' games. Not a woman's to be seen nor a voice to be heard among the ethnic representation. No wonder so many were standing for the LNP.
John Nguyen's family were Vietnamese boat people and still he supported Abbott's turn back the boats policy.
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frangipani:
13 Sep 2013 7:06:01pm
John Nguyen's family came out of a refugee camp. They went to Malaysia and waited in a camp to be processed for Australia. Very few Vietnamese came on boats to Australia.
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vault :
13 Sep 2013 4:14:16pm
Good read, thanks Andrew.
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Hudson Godfrey:
13 Sep 2013 4:26:19pm
The subtext to this is that if they identify with their constituency politicians may be able to cut through racism. Let's hope they hear that message and act upon it sooner rather than later, the race to the bottom is truly ruining our political discourse in this country.
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Kevin Lee:
13 Sep 2013 5:05:56pm
Good article Andrew but I can correct some huge generalisations. All Vietnamese are not the same so there are lots of younger Viets who saw Andrew Nguyen as a has-been wannabe. He is already on council and he is 70 years old yet his communication skills with the majority of voters (remember he is not being elected to represent only Vietnam's escapees) would have a hard time voting for him even if they do support Liberal fundamentally. Diaz is the same. His job is getting Filo overstayers permanent residency. Hardly on board with the Lib's secret slow-migration platform. But they are preferencing Catholic candidates and David Clarke (Opus Dei) does prefer to entice fundamentalist Catholic candidates and those who sing Amen to whatever hymn their party string-pullers intone.
That said, I agree with Mr Islam there, many Muslims would have pulled their vote from Labor when Kevin "Look-at-me-" Rudd said he would advance the cause for gay marriage, an abomination with Jews, Opus Dei Catholics & Muslims.
And by the way, Ray King would be spitting out his cornflakes if he read that you called him right-wing Catholic. I only confirmed him a Catholic 2 or 3 years back and he hates right wingers (particularly Opus Dei) with a passion..
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mike:
13 Sep 2013 7:27:47pm
Most Jews support gay rights. In fact the only Middle Eastern country with such rights is Israel.
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OUB :
13 Sep 2013 5:49:32pm
Interesting thanks Andrew.
Does anyone have any idea what benefit David Clarke's prominence in the NSW Liberal Party brings? There can't be a big Opus Dei voting bloc?
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Trev:
13 Sep 2013 6:11:53pm
Opus Dei is a catholic abomination. Catholicism is a blight on this nation, anyone who disagrees should read Dave Hunt's book, "A woman rides the beast," and they will get to see the disgusting practices of the roman so called church.
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stephen:
13 Sep 2013 6:36:27pm
But just imagine that if more Catholics have a better influence here, then there will more Italians here.
How multicultural is that, hey ?
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TK:
13 Sep 2013 6:46:49pm
What I am going to say will not be politically correct, however it has proved to be correct in many, local, state and federal elections; - Ethnic candidates will, on most occasions, attract smaller following (less votes) than 'non-ethnic' candidates. Ethnic candidates attract greater following of the voters of the same ethnic group, however all other ethnic groups will rather vote for non-ethnic person than an ethnic person of different ethnic group.
I understand that all parties must show their commitment to multiculturalism, and must have some Ethnic candidates, however they should be aware that Ethnic candidate will attract 2-5% lesser following than a non ethnic person.
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Mike (the other one):
13 Sep 2013 7:50:11pm
Just one question - why is it that Australia is cornered into 'celebrating' a whole lot of 'johnny come lately' cultures when they really didn't do anything to help build this country? In fact this country has been steadily going backwards over the last few decades with the importation of all this multiculturalism. Fact - not racist, just too many cooks.
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Reinhard:
13 Sep 2013 8:06:11pm
I read the SMH article this morning and was appalled at the shoddy treatment handed out to Mr Nguyen and others by the Liberal party machine.. Mr Nguyen was frog marched out of an Abbott appearance in his own electorate and claims he mortgaged his home to put $380,000 of his own money into his campaign.
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