With the outcome of the Bennelong by-election , SBS Cantonese has been actively reporting from both sides of the political divide.
The 2016 census revealed that 21 per cent of Bennelong residents have Chinese ancestry, while 13.3 per cent were born in China.
After y we also asked the representative of the Liberal Party, John Alexander, how he feels ahead of the by-election of the federal seat.
Kristina Keneally has previously accused Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of damaging John Alexander’s chance of winning due to his comments regarding China’s influence on Australian politics.
Mr Alexander says what he has learnt from Ms Keneally over the past few years is not to put too much weight on what she says.
He reveals that he has talked to numerous community members in the electorate and claims to have only come across one individual who expressed their concern about the Prime Minister’s comments.
And yet, he says, that particular community member agreed that “Malcolm’s comments were more in defence of Australia's situation.”
The latest Newspoll data suggests the primary vote of Ms Keneally and Mr Alexander are both equal at 39 per cent with nine per cent going to Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives Party.
Mr Alexander also says he thinks election results are hard to predict and that a lot of factors have contributed to the loss of popularity.
When asked whether he would quit politics in the event of losing the by-election, Mr Alexander stresses he is "not a quitter," and promises to continue to work for the people of Bennelong.
Read the full transcript of the interview below:
The latest Newspoll data suggests the Liberal Party's primary vote has collapsed in the seat of Bennelong, with the nine per cent margin lost, your primary vote is now equal to Kristina Keneally at 39 per cent. Are you concerned that you may lose in the by-election?
No. I’ve been in a number of elections and competitions but all you can do is to concentrate on the task at hand, and keep working to achieve the best result.
And this is a free game. What happens is we play as hard as we can, and then after the close of play on Saturday, there’s people who add up all the scores, and then we will know the results.
Any other comments between now and then is just speculation.
Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives Party, which is running for the seat for the first time, has attracted 9 per cent of the primary vote. Do you think that it’s due to the passing of the same sex marriage legislation, which is not what the voters in your electorate want?
Mine was one of the electorates that voted "no," very narrowly, in the marriage equality postal vote. And I think Cory Bernardi's party has made a very, very big effort, to come and campaign here.
There is, I think, 12 parties represented. And I have to run on my record in the electorate, for the work that I have done over the past seven years.
Are you still confident that you can regain the seat?
I am confident in only one thing, that I am going to make my very best effort to win, and that’s what we concentrate on each day.
Yesterday we spoke to Kristina Keneally, who said voters in the electorate have told her that they are concerned about the Prime Minister’s comments on China and its influence on Australian politics. Do you agree that the Prime Minister’s comments did upset your voters?
I talked to a lot of members of the community, as I have for seven years. And in all of the conversations that I have had, one person has raised this as an issue. One.
And yet, at the same time, he agreed that Malcolm’s comments were more in defence of Australia's situation, and that, as Malcolm said, the Chinese government respects a strong leader and they see Malcolm as a strong leader. That was on Monday.
There are many other issues I think, they see what you read in the press isn’t always what is happening. My relationship with the community here has been fantastic.
They loved what we did with table tennis in schools, to get children from all backgrounds making friends and also in regard to concerns over crime, in the Eastwood area, that we actually held a crime forum to find out what was really happening, and then taking some good action to assist in that area.
Kristina Keneally yesterday said that the Prime Minister’s comment has also affected your campaign. Do you agree?
Look, [here's] what I have learnt from Kristina.
Kristina had said that she spent over an hour waiting for Medicare on a phone line, and we noted that it’s not true.
Kristina had said that it was our government that close down the Medicare centre in Eastwood - that was not true, it was the Rudd Government.
Kristina had said that we have reduced spending on education - that is not true, we are increasing spending on education every year that we have been in government.
Next year it increases by 10 per cent; over the next ten years, it increases by over 50 per cent. So I’m afraid if Kristina said something, I’m not inclined to believe her, at all.
Senator Sam Dastyari’s incident reveals Mr Huang Xiangmo’s former advisor, Mr Tim Xu, was working on the election campaign with you. Are you worried that this connection will lead the voters to think that you are under the influence of China?
Not at all. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We have hundreds of volunteers helping us, I understand the person that you mentioned… I wouldn't even know if ever had even seen him at one of our campaigning events, but I understand he is no longer with us now.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, there are around 17,000 people of Chinese background in the electorate. Do you think that they will feel comfortable voting for a Liberal candidate after the Prime Minister had made such comments?
No. What you’re saying is misrepresenting the fact.
Our Prime Minister was one of the very first really successful businessmen to go to China, and work in China. He has many Chinese friends developed over many years.
We are, as a government, the party that forged the free trade agreement with China. Chinese trade has benefited from our government.
We are often so Chinese-centric that we spend too much time generating our trade with our biggest trading partner.
We welcome trade with China, we do everything to promote trade in China. But we do not welcome any country to interfere with our domestic politics.
Today, two pieces of information came out: NSW had the biggest increase in Chinese tourism, 15,000 people this year, and NT had the biggest increase in Chinese tourism in the past 12 months.
We welcome trade with China, we do everything to promote trade in China. But we do not welcome any country to interfere with our domestic politics.
And that’s, as every sovereign country operates, and if there is any concern that any country is trying to influence politicians, we must be vigilant against that, to protect the strength of our sovereignty.
Political and economical relationships are usually tied together. If we have a bad relationship with China, we might also suffer economically. How would you balance between the two?
We have great relations with China. Every Chinese event that I have gone to, either hosted by the ambassador or the consul general, the one thing that I have heard is that our relationship is strong, because of very strong diplomatic relations.
We have a wonderful trade between our two countries. And there’s always this claim that our relationship must now go to the next level, an even closer level.
And I believe that is happening because we’ve recently called for an expression of interest to build high-speed rail, and to have the same benefits that high-speed rail has provided in China.
I know that a Chinese company responded to that call of expression of interest, where they would look to actually partner with Australia to develop cities and to assist us in our growth through their experience with high-speed rail, and the purpose of high-speed rail to develop cities that can spread settlement.
So at the moment we are concentrating our settlement in Sydney and Melbourne, and we need to balance our settlement. And I think this is another great example of Chinese businesses being very, very in tune with our needs... and I think [it helps] taking our relationship to the next level.
But after the Prime Minister making those comments, will they still go ahead with the plan?
I don’t think… Look, in Australian politics, unfortunately, we have people who would say anything to misrepresent what is actually happening. The press sometimes inflame situations.
But the relationships between [China and] our leader, especially our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and Julie Bishop and others, is just as good and as strong as any other relationships with any country.
In the Epping and Eastwood areas, car-parking and housing affordability are a major concern. Also on top of that, the recently implemented new train service timetable has cancelled the express train service departing from Eastwood. How would you respond to these issues?
I have been working on those issues for seven years. I initiated and shared the inquiry into home ownership. And the recommendations from that inquiry, a bipartisan inquiry, parliamentary inquiry, has affected policy that Scott Morrison has delivered in restricting investors to only 80 per cent of borrowings on investment properties, which means if you only borrow 80 per cent you can only deduct 80 per cent.
And what the inquiry found was, the investor was dominating the market and excluding the homebuyer from being able to buy their own home. And now we see that the market has changed, the investor is drifting away and the homebuyer is coming in.
So with the problem that I saw in my electorate, that I did the inquiry to gather the facts, and then to work with the treasurer, to develop policy to address the problem, has all worked.
In regard to congestion, I also initiated with the Prime Minister the cities inquiry into infrastructure, land use, rail, value capture and high speed rail.
The recommendations were that all infrastructure should be master planned. And that master planning must be attached to land use, and that the master planning, if you're going to have rail, it must have the capacity to transport the people that you're moving into the area.
It was Kristina Keneally who stopped the Northwest rail line from being built. And that is where the great majority of our traffic comes from, it’s from the Northwest.
So the current Liberal government is now building the Northwest rail line, which will see the congestion reduced enormously.
And so, this is what I have worked on for seven years. I’ve shared three inquiries into these things. I don’t just say how 'this is a terrible problem, and you’re to blame.' I actually took up the challenge, and have found policies to address these things.
If you fail this by-election, would you quit politics, or would you stay?
If you look at my history, I’m not a quitter. I’ve lost lots of matches and I’ve come back and played again, and I would continue to work for the people of Bennelong.
