Strategist: Last Australian government lost Chinese votes

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A campaign strategist says the previous Australian government’s stance against a more aggressive China drove away many Chinese-Australian voters at recent elections who considered the administration’s language had licensed racism. The conservative coalition government lost elections last month after almost a decade in power to the center-left Labor Party. Labor’s campaign director Paul Erickson on Wednesday blamed coalition rhetoric on China for significant vote swings toward Labor in electorates with large Chinese-Australian populations. He said there was a view that the coalition’s responses to China were an attack on Chinese-Australians or racist rhetoric. Senior figures in the former government had argued that Beijing had wanted Labor to win.