‘A big shift': Australia has elected its most diverse parliament. What impact will it have?

The Guardian

16-05-2025

Ash Ambihaipahar grew up without seeing anyone like her in Australian politics. The young lawyer, who won the safe multicultural Sydney seat of Barton at the recent federal election, has a Sri Lankan background. She grew up with the support of Maltese and Italian families around her.
She says that's made her 'open-minded' and appreciate the full breadth of diversity of Australia.
'I didn't see a lot of people who looked like me in government roles,' she says.
'It's really nice to know that … with this new government, we've seen a big shift in representation – not just cultural diversity in that sense but also a lot of women.'
The 48th parliament is Australia's most diverse, welcoming the highest number of elected women, as well as an increase in multicultural representation.
More than 55% of Labor MPs and senators are women, an increase from 53% after the 2022 election.
One or two seats remain to be called, but in the House of Representatives women will make up a clear majority in the Labor party, with 50 out of 93 (or 94) members. There are 12 women and 11 men in the cabinet.
Women also have a majority in Labor's Senate team, with 18 out of 28 (or up to 19 out of 30).
In contrast the Liberals have remained stagnant in their gender split in the House, sitting at about 21%, the same as at the last parliament, although the party will be led by a woman, Sussan Ley, for the first time.
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In the Senate, with the defection of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and the addition of Leah Blyth, who replaced Simon Birmingham in South Australia before the election, the Liberals will have 11 women out of 22 or 23 senators (with the count still continuing).
New faces will increase the number of non-European members among all parties to 20 (and up to 24), with eight First Nations MPs and senators out of 226 representatives.
Modelling for Media Diversity Australia's report Who Gets to Tell Australian Stories, using figures from the 2021 census, suggests 25% of Australia's population has a non-European cultural background, excluding First Nations people, who represent 3.2% of the population.
Back in 2019, six First Nations representatives sat in the chambers while just 11 representatives came from other non-European backgrounds.
Analysis by Osmond Chiu, a research fellow at Per Capita and a Labor party member, shows Australia still lags behind other comparable countries.
After this year's election in Canada, 18% of its MPs are from a visible minority, compared with 26.5% of its population. In the UK, 13.8% of MPs in the House of Commons come from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, compared with 14% of its population.
Chiu says there has been a significant increase in the number of representatives with Asian backgrounds in Australia's parliament.
'We've seen a big increase in Chinese Australian representation, so in the last parliament there were only three people of Chinese heritage elected in the parliament, and that's going to be doubled in this parliament,' he says.
'We're seeing people from south Asian backgrounds and Asian representation more broadly.'
Labor has 13 culturally diverse members, which could increase to 16 once the tallies are finalised.
Cultural diversity in the cabinet hasn't increased, with just four of 23 cabinet ministers coming from a non-European or First Nations background. That includes the inclusion of the first Muslim woman to hold a cabinet position, Anne Aly, who was elevated to the small business portfolio. Ed Husic, the first Muslim man in the last cabinet, was dumped by his faction.
Husic said he attributed part of his dumping to speaking out on the issue of Gaza, something Aly has also been vocal about.
'You can't celebrate diversity and then expect it to sit in the corner silent,' Husic told the ABC last week. 'You need to speak up, when you bring the different views to either a cabinet table or a caucus.'
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Following the outbreak of conflict in Gaza, Muslim vote community groups galvanised support across parts of western Sydney, with several high-profile candidates running against Labor cabinet ministers.
In Blaxland, held by the education minister, Jason Clare, independent Ahmed Ouf received nearly 20% of the primary vote. In the seat of Watson, held by the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, independent Ziad Basyouny received nearly 15% of the primary vote.
Ambihaipahar says an increase in diversity will improve the outcomes of the government.
'I think we make better [and] fairer decisions when we have a parliament that looks like its community, and I think it is more powerful than just being symbolic, so to speak, around diversity,' she says.
The Liberal party has four non-European diverse members in the House and Senate (with Gisele Kapterian still waiting on the result in Bradfield) and two First Nations senators – Price and Kerrynne Liddle.
The incoming Liberal MP for McPherson, Leon Rebello, is the son of Goan migrant parents, who worked as a solicitor for a major law firm and as an adviser to the former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop.
He says the increase in cultural diversity 'reinforces' the principle that all Australians, regardless of background, are 'stakeholders' of democracy.
But he says it will take more time until representatives fully reflect multicultural society.
'I want to strive to have more people of different backgrounds in parliament … I think it is something that does take time. We're obviously seeing this play out with women in politics as well, so there is a time factor.'
Rebello points to the work involved in becoming a candidate for a major party. He says it often takes years working in local branches and forging connections to support a preselection run.
'Now [there are] people of different backgrounds who have started those processes a few years ago, and we might see the result of that in the coming terms, and I think I'm a really good example of that,' he says.
Asked whether the Liberal party should do more to support that process for multicultural candidates, Rebello says there should be an 'even playing field' for all candidates and the party should engage more with communities.
'It's [about] making sure that we're actually selling and communicating [our] values to multicultural groups, that we actually have equal representation or proportionate representation of multicultural groups within our branches.'.
Ambihaipahar stresses the importance of picking candidates who represent their communities, particularly in multicultural areas.
She says people from diverse backgrounds need to be brave in putting their hand up.
'I think we overthink things too much and we're probably more conscious of how people might react – how much people react on socials or to your face.
'At the end of the day no one chose the colour of their skin so I think we just need to be really brave to put ourselves out there.'