Two Vietnamese-Australian candidates and Australian democracy in action

The seat of Fowler in Sydney’s West showcases some of the best features of Australia’s democracy - two Vietnamese-Australian women are battling for electoral success in Sydney’s multicultural heartland.

While our Australian democracy has its fair share of flaws, Fowler, is showcasing some strengths. As we watch the grim spectacle of America’s democratic decline, it’s a good time to think about systemic strengths.

The seat of Fowler sits in one of Sydney’s most diverse electorates. Until 2022 it was a Labor stronghold. In 2022, Vietnamese-Australian independent Dai Le, previously a Liberal Party member, changed that. 

Labor’s hold on the seat was weakened because the party parachuted an outsider in as its candidate. Kristina Keneally was a Labor star and former NSW premier, but she lived about as far away from Fowler as you can get in Sydney - on the affluent Northern Beaches. She was the antithesis of a local candidate. The Labor Party had a local candidate ready - young lawyer, Tu Le. Head office stepped in and forced the Keneally candidacy. Keneally lost in a narrow contest. The ALP paid the price for overlooking their local star and in 2025, she's back.

Something that’s also interesting about the 2022 election is that Keneally easily won the primary vote in Fowler with 31,000 votes compared with Dai Le’s 25,500.

What happened? 

The vote was turned by our preferential voting system. Keneally and Le received around 66% of the primary vote between them. Other candidates received 34% of the first preferences. When preferences were distributed Dai Le was the winner. Our democracy served us. The people's voting preferences were reflected in the result.

In the US and British system, Keneally would have won with her first preference. But in the Australian system, the second preferences are allocated. Le won the bulk of these, presumably on Liberal Party preferences. She won the election. An excellent outcome for democracy - even if i personally prefer more progressive candidates.

The other proud feature of the Fowler electorate is that our Vietnamese community is so well integrated into our political system. We have multiple candidates across generations in multiple electorates. The same could be written about other Asian candidates as well as Arab and Indian origin candidates.

Lastly, on a different note, there’s the curious issue of Australian pronunciation of Vietnamese names. They’re not always easy to pronounce. But sometimes it’s just lazy - or habit.  Dai Le and Tu Le share a family name. ‘Le’, is more accurately pronounced ‘Lay’ - and not “Lee”. Somehow, the incorrect pronunciation is now completely embedded in Australia. It’s crazy. These women are public figures - constantly in the press.

Our Vietnamese Australian community is so accustomed to having their names butchered, that they often adopt our local mispronunciation. Nguyen, the most common Vietnamese family name is roughly pronounced Nwien or Nwin. It’s common to hear Vietnamese using a mispronounced local version - Newen. I reckon by now, we should be getting close to correct pronunciation of both Le and Nguyen - they are part of our language now.

If you’d like to explore the Vietnamese language further, check out a class I made years ago over at our other website Rusty Compass