The marginal Sydney seat of Bennelong had just two sitting members in its first 58-years of existence.
But it's changed hands in the past two elections and may do so again.
Incumbent Liberal MP John Alexander holds the seat by a margin of just 3.1 per cent.
The former tennis star is up against Chinese-Australian Jason Yat-Sen Li who has been hand-picked by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
As Thea Cowie reports, multiculturalism is bound to feature in the tussle for the seat.
Of all the Liberal-held seats, Bennelong has the highest proportion of overseas-born residents.
More than 42 per cent of people speak a language other than English at home, with 13,000 speaking Mandarin, 12,000 Cantonese and almost 7000 Korean.
Labor candidate, lawyer and businessman Jason Yat-Sen Li is already emphasising his cultural ties with the community.
"If we are successful we will be the first Australian of Asian background in the House of Representatives. The electorate was also named after an Aboriginal Australia - Bennelong. So I think it's a nice symbolic thing."
While living and working in Beijing last month, Mr Li received a personal phone call from Kevin Rudd who asked the former United Nations lawyer to stand for the seat of Bennelong.
The call came after Labor's first pick Jeff Salvestro-Martin was dis-endorsed after he became embroiled in a corruption inquiry into Ryde Council.
Mr Li is no stranger to politics.
His first foray into the business was to fight the rise of Pauline Hanson, running unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1998 on the multiculturalist Unity Party ticket.
Mr Li also joined Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull in the Republican movement sparking controversy when he criticised model Jodhi Meares for refusing to wear a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: "Give an Australian the Head Job."
The fluent speaker of Mandarin and Cantonese says he plans to make Bennelong rival the United States' tech-hub Silicon Valley.
"What Silicon Valley has that we can do better, I think, in Bennelong is this culture of innovation and of course the access to venture capital so as the mining boom tapers off I'd like to see Bennelong become the hub for the new economy. "
He says one of the key issues for the electorate is traffic congestion.
Bennelong's incumbent MP John Alexander also points to problems on the roads as the electorate's main challenge but he's critical of Mr Li's pledge to turn Bennelong into an Australian Silicon Valley.
He says it's a promise that would be easy to keep because the area is already a tech and investment hub.
The former world number eight tennis champion is also rejecting suggestions Mr Li's cultural ties with the electorate are an advantage.
"I think it's far more important what is said than in what language. Our campaign is built on what we have done. It's our record that comes as a result of really knowing out community, living here, working here long before I went into politics."
The order of Australia medal holder says he has worked hard to ensure cultural harmony in the electorate and is particularly proud of his table tennis and market garden initiatives.
"Chinese students and Korean students were not engaging with other students because they weren't going to play football at times but they will play table tennis. Everyone will play table tennis. Our latest program is to utilise unused areas for commercial market gardens that people who are retired and are socially isolated should be able to engage with people who have disabilities for the sake of building a business."
Mr Alexander won Bennelong from Labor's Maxine McKew with a swing of 4.5 per cent at the 2010 election.
At the election beforehand, Ms McKew had wrested the seat off then P-M John Howard making him only the second Australian leader to loose both the Prime Ministership and his seat in the same election.
The electorate's Chinese population was widely credited for helping un-seat Mr Howard by actively campaigning for Ms McKew.
Former president of a local Asian Business Association Brad Chan has told the ABC the Chinese community could again swing hundreds of votes back to Labor.
"John Alexander has been a really strong member for Bennelong. Jason however I think it's quite a smart move by the Labor Party to bring him in. I think it's important that he also doesn't appeal just to the Asian voter, that he doesn't ostracise the non-Asian voter in the area as well"
Also running for the seat of Bennelong is the Australian Greens' Lindsay Peters who is a software manager with a P-h-D in mathematics.
23-year-old local rugby player Lachlan McCaffrey is running for the Democratic Labor Party.
The Palmer United Australia party and Christian Democratic Party are also fielding candidates.
