The federal election is quickly approaching; it is anticipated to take place somewhere in the period of March to 27 September 2025, while most reports indicate that it will occur in the final two weeks of May 2025.
In most states, including Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales, the subject of cost of living will influence the outcome of the upcoming federal election.
However, in many places where Muslims predominate, the question will be way different. “Will you listen to us when we need you, and will you respect our faith and dignity?” The answer to this question is trickier than you might think, even if it seems straightforward.
Following Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser’s election in 1983, Australia’s Labor and Liberal parties turned their attention to gaining support among immigrant and minority populations. To increase their voter base, both parties came up with two distinct scenarios, which I’ll go into more detail about in this article.
Prime Minister Harold Holt changed Australia’s immigration laws and started the process of ending the “white Australian” policy in 1966. PM Gough Whitlam established the Multiculturalism Policy, or Diversity as we know it now, in 1973.
A significant influx of Muslim immigrants from Turkey, Lebanon, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan settled in Australia in the late 20th century. Around 10,000 Turkish nationals relocated to Australia in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a result of a deal between Australia and Turkiye.
After the Lebanon Civil War started in 1975, the first and biggest non-white and non-European immigrants settled in Australia from Lebanon. In 1976, around 40,000 Muslim Lebanese immigrants settled in Australia, making up 0.33% of the country’s total population. Many overseas students from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh arrived in Australia in the 1990s. Between 1990 and 1991, following the first Gulf War, more Arabs immigrated to Australia.
This is the first time the Islamophobia has been discussed in public in Australia, after many newspapers received letters calling Arab Australians to prove their loyalty to the country or “go home. Numerous Muslim women who wore hijab faced harassment in public places.
In the twenty-first century, the number of arrivals from Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, and Sudan increased every year. Muslims in Australia made up 2.2% of the population in 2011. The percentage increased to 3.2% of the population in the previous censuses.
The majority of Muslims in Australia reside in Sydney and Melbourne. In Melbourne, the majority of them live in Broadmeadows, Coburg, Brunswick, Epping, and Flemington. The majority of Muslims in Sydney reside in Lakemba, Auburn, Bankstown, and Liverpool.
You might be wondering how this history, and these figures relate to our discussion of the federal election. There is one political party that all of our state and federal legislators come from that represents these areas, and that is the Labor Party of Australia. Why do we have only one representative when many other immigrant groups, such as those from Eastern Europe and Asia, have mixed Labor and Liberal representatives?
Labor attracted many immigrant advocates to join the political party and allowed them to run for the top elected position. Most of them were given the chance to run the council elections. The party was able to convince the Muslim and immigrant communities that they are good for them, and liberals are racist, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant.
The last 15 years when Greens started getting into Parliament and started attracting Muslim community, Labor feared the support they were getting, and they convinced the Muslim community that Greens has no power and they will lose those votes to someone who will not win and Liberal will get into power.
We become a community that doesn’t have any option other than to vote for one political party. I ran for council this year, and while I was at a prepoll centre, I met someone who spoke the same language and culture as me. I walked up to him, trying to ease the conversation by speaking to him in our mother tongue. He asked me where the Labor Party how to vote card was, but I informed him that I am an independent candidate and I’ll love to get his support. I spent about 5 minutes convincing him to vote for me, but he responded to me that Labor is good for us, and I’ll waste his vote.
Another issue we have in our community is that an individual person doesn’t make the decision to elect someone. The whole family will make a decision to vote for one candidate, and that is a 5-10 easy vote for that one candidate. A lot of our community has issues understanding the role of independent candidates, and other political parties mislead the community, such as labeling that candidate to a specific community.
Next federal election, this could be different. Many community organisations are trying to educate their communities to elect better candidates, such as The Muslim Vote. They are a non-political movement that was established to educate and mobilise the community.
Many people that I spoke from Sydney told me that they checked this organisation, and they started questioning themselves. Many of the labor voters told me that they are moving to Greens or independent candidates after what happened to Senator Fatima Payman.
The campaign already started in some areas, many current Labor and Liberal MPs started asking for donations for the next election. Also, independent candidates announced their candidacy. The seat of Watson, which is where the largest Muslim voters are from, will be challenging. Tony Burke, who is the current Labor MP for this seat, will face a lot of challenges from Dr Ziad Basyouny.
Dr Ziad Basyouny is a local GP in Lakemba. Living and working in the area for almost 20 years, he understands the challenges of locals, such as health, education, and cost of living. Many locals are also compelling the injustice, and the genocide is happening in Gaza.
25% of the voters are Muslims, and it’s believed most of them went to labor last election. It is believed if the Muslim voters united and voted as one bloc, also Liberals did not waste this; Dr. Ziad could be the next MP of Watson but the result could be the hands of 25% of Muslim voters.
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