Explaining the political under-representation of Asian Australians: geographical concentration and voting patterns

ABSTRACT

In terms of Asian Migrant and Ethnic Minority (MEM) representation, the Australian Parliament is one of the most unrepresentative when compared to other similar settler societies such as Canada and the United States. This article examines why the Australian Parliament still predominantly comprises members of parliament from British and European Backgrounds despite Australia’s rich multicultural heritage involving a long history of non-British and European migration. One of the main reasons put forward for the low participation of Asian migrant and ethnic minorities in the Australian Parliament is the lack of geographical concentration of Asian migrants and the declining importance of the ‘ethnic vote’, which in other similar settler countries has led to the selection and recruitment of MEM candidates to competitive seats. This article explores the geographical concentration of Asian migrants in competitive seats as well as voting patterns among Asian Australians using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Election Studies. In doing so, this research considers whether there is potential for the incorporation of MEM interests in the future through descriptive and substantive representation.

KEYWORDS:

• Australia
• voting
• immigrants
• elections
• multiculturalism

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Fiona Barker (Victoria University, Wellington) and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. I would also like to thank the participants at the ‘Emigrant and Immigrant Voting and Representation: Comparative Perspectives’ workshop held at Victoria University in December 2016 for their many helpful suggestions and Kate McMillan and Fiona Barker for hosting the workshop.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In Australia, the term ‘ethnic’ is often used as shorthand to allude to ethnic minorities, or to migrants, or to both, which is not commonplace in other Western settler countries.

2. This is an estimate only based on reported ancestries. The Australian census does not ask questions based on race or skin colour.

3. Classification of seats is applied by Australian Electoral Commission which views a marginal seat as one held by a margin of less than 6%.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [grant number DE130101265].

Notes on contributors

Juliet Pietsch

Juliet Pietsch is an associate professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University. She has a particular research interest in the study of migrants and ethnic minorities and political representation in settler societies.