Doctor Surjeet Dhanji, a researcher at the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne says one of the largest hurdles, is the complex pre-selection process.
"And by and large Asian candidates are put in seats that are unwinnable. Those are marginal seats or seats that don't really matter to each political party and they just need a name to fill in the slot"
The first elected Chinese-born member of the House of Representatives, Gladys Liu, says her party is keen to tap into her knowledge of her Chinese community.
Daniel Long Nguyen had zero experience of politics when he ran as an independent in council elections. The son of Vietnamese refugees went on to be elected mayor of the City of Yarra at the age of 29.
'And the reality was I had not met a politician at any level prior to me running. So not only did I not have a lived experience, I didn't really have anyone to lean on through there. So to be fair there was a lot of jumping on the internet, jumping on YouTube, speaking to a few different people. And I was fortunate, someone did reach out to me from the Vietnamese community and give me a few tips.'
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