The three Filipino-Australian candidates for the Australian Federal Parliament, two for the lower house and another for the senate failed in their candidacies during Federal election last 7th September.
Opportunity to ride on anti-Labor votes failed to help any of the two Filipino Australian bets under the Liberal National Coalition to realise the prospect of being the first Filipino heritage Member of the Parliament.
The lone candidate for the Senate of Filipino origin running under a minority political party was upstaged by candidates from even smaller parties referred by the press as “micro parties” which harvested electoral preferences for eventual Senate seats.
Coalition candidate for the seat of Greenway in New South Wales Blacktown solicitor Mr Jayme Diaz who was much touted to better his showing against his opponent sitting Member Michele Rowland’s slim margin during the 2010 election, lost a further 3.02 per cent swing and failed to capitalise on anti-Labor votes. Rowlands got 39,730 votes to Diaz 33, 976 votes
Many attributed the fewer votes for Mr Diaz to his dismal TV interview early during the campaign and his decision to shy away from the media and from community public forum and focus mainly on person-to-person campaigns in shops and train stations.
On the other hand former youth community leader Mrs Carmen Garcia who improved the Liberal Party candidate’s showing compared to the 2010 results, still failed to topple sitting Member for Adelaide Ms Katie Ellis (Labor ) who got 39,697 votes to Garcia’s 33,427 votes or difference of 6,270 votes.
Garcia improved the Liberal party candidate’s votes in 2010 by 3.23 swing but not enough to unseat Ellis.
The two Filipino-Australian candidates were initially up against seasoned and high profile Labor Party candidates and the Coalition Party challenger’s campaign efforts have shown not to be not good enough to unseat both.
In the Senate, Mr Ronaldo Villaver’s candidacy for the Federal Senate under the Australian Democrats did not go the way of so-called micro-parties who captured Senate seats via election preferences.
In ranking of votes garnered in the Senate race, the Australian Democrats landed 10th behind the two major parties and seven micro parties.