Australian party under fire for anti-Chinese campaign

SYDNEY -- The New South Wales (NSW) Australian Labor Party (ALP) on Thursday continued to come under attack for being anti-Chinese and sending xenophobic messages to the Australian people.

NSW Minister for Citizenship and Communities Victor Dominello said the NSW ALP's election strategy has been "reduced to lies and scaremongering about the prospect of a Chinese-owned company bidding to be involved in a future electricity lease transaction."

With the NSW election set for this Saturday, ALP NSW leader Luke Foley has said he supported a union advertising campaign that claims the NSW government is planning to sell the state's electricity network to China's State Grid Corporation.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union campaign attacks China's State Grid Corporation which is a potential buyer of leases over the state's power network.

Dominello said Labor's advertisements are anti-Chinese and anti-Asian and evoke the old "yellow peril" scare tactics.

"They amount to a veiled attack against members of our Chinese community, with subliminal messages which are dark and xenophobic, " Dominello told a press conference in Sydney.

"This confirms that Labor poses a threat to all the work the Baird Government has done to develop a strong economic relationship with China, our biggest trading partner.

"Through its gutter politics Labor has already damaged our relationship with China and denigrated our local Chinese community in the process."

President of the NSW branch of the Australia China Business Council, Jim Harrowell, told the Australian newspaper that Foley's remarks were damaging to business relations with China, raised the fear of the "yellow peril" and politically motivated.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane criticised anti-privatization advertisements, which focused on the prospect of State Grid Corporation's investment, for "inflaming xenophobia. "

"In this case, it is disappointing that political advertisements have resorted to such fear-mongering," Soutphommasane told The Daily Telegraph.

However, Foley has said that he had spoken to many Chinese people at community meetings in Sydney and claims the people were equally opposed to privatization of the electricity network.

"I don't want the Chinese government, or the French government or the Russian government or even my friends in the Irish government owning the NSW electricity network," he told reporters.

A Labor spokesperson said the party had a long history of being friends with China with former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam establishing diplomatic relations with China.

Despite the arguments, sitting NSW Premier Mike Baird remains ahead in the polls and is tipped to win Saturday's election.