Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been one of the world’s most outspoken leaders in pushing back against China, and many Australian voters share his concerns. But the tough language could end up hurting more than helping him in key seats that may swing Saturday’s election.
One of them is Chisholm in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, where one in five people are of Chinese descent. Morrison’s center-right Liberal National coalition took the electorate by a margin of just 0.6% three years ago en route to a narrow election win, and he needs to repeat the feat to pull off another come-from-behind victory.
The streets of Box Hill, one of 10 suburbs that make up the Chisholm seat, are filled with Chinese medicine stores and acupuncture businesses that wouldn’t be out of place on the streets of Hong Kong or Beijing. Many of the shop signs are written in both English and Chinese dialects in the suburb, which sits about a half-hour train ride from central Melbourne.