The seat of Bennelong in Sydney’s north-west came to fame as former Prime Minister John Howard’s electorate in 1996, but it is also one of Sydney’s more culturally diverse seats.
Almost half of the residents speak a language other than English at home, compared to the national average of just under 20 per cent, with Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean being the most commonly spoken.
And when comedian Michael Hing asked the former tennis great what he is doing to connect with his diverse community, he received an unexpected answer.
“We have a program, table tennis in schools," Mr Alexander said.
"We started that because we could see there were too many students – Korean and Chinese students – who were being left out of what you would call ‘traditional’ Australian sport."
"At no stage was I thinking 'Oh this is going to win a vote'. I thought it was really a great thing to do and it really made my job fulfilling."
Finally, a politician speaking to the Asian community’s need for more ping pong tables in schools.
Disappointingly, Mr Alexander’s political opponent, Jason Yat-sen Li, doesn’t have his own policy on ping pong tables in schools.
The former judges’ associate from the international criminal court in The Hague says he’s more of a “business guy.”
“We’re focussed on economic growth and jobs and innovation in this area,” he said.
But that didn’t stop the Labor candidate from challenging Mr Alexander, former world number eight tennis player, to a round of squash.
“In the context of this very serious political contest, I would like to challenge you to a game of squash at a location of your picking, and the winner of this has to shout the other person a Chinese meal."
