The Liberal Party looks like following the rot that set in with John Howard – Tampa and dog-whistling about Asian migration.

But this time the Liberals might be kicking an own goal because of the electoral clout of our migrant communities.

The warning signs for the Liberals are clear. They have offended voters with Chinese and Indian backgrounds and paid the electoral consequences at the past two federal elections.

New leader Angus Taylor says that in migration matters he will focus on “Australian values … protecting the Australian way of life”. Whatever that is.

He says that “immigration standards have been too low”.

Who does he have in mind? Muslims, where we keep blaming all Muslims for crimes of individuals. Do we blame all Italian Catholics for the mafia?

Taylor is harking back to the Australia of 50 years ago. Modern Australia is very different, with 32 per cent of our population born overseas and about half of it either born overseas or having at least one parent born there.

There have been major surges in migrants from China and India. Political parties will ignore these new demographics at their peril.

Australia-Chinese voters

The “China threat” highlighted by the Liberal Party has caused concern among Chinese voters.

Senator James Paterson has been particularly active on this. Peter Dutton was vocal on Chinese naval ships circumventing Australia.

There have been trade disputes with China that the Liberal Party has sought to exploit.

At the federal election last May Senator Jane Hume – now deputy Liberal leader – warned us about “Chinese spies”. She followed with a dissembling apology that made her offence even worse.

Not surprisingly, all of this antagonised many Chinese who are small business people with strong family ties and usually voted for the Liberal Party.

Seats like Bennelong have large numbers of Chinese Australian voters. Photo: AAP

But not now. At the 2022 election, at least five seats with significant Chinese voters, including Reid, Chisholm, Bennelong and Tangney, tipped the result to the ALP.

Without those extra seats, the Albanese government would not have had a majority in the House of Representatives.

In its post-2022 election review the Liberal Party said: “The........

© The New Daily