Jieh-yung Lo writes "The perceptions of members of parliaments and councillors for the majority of migrant and refugee communities are still Anglo-Saxon men in their 50s and 60s with very similar education and career backgrounds. We have to start changing this!"

This article can be summed up in one sentence: "There are too many English speaking white people who have power, the English speaking whites must therefore be held back so non-English and non-whites can attain power."

The sub-text is actually racist. Although many won't bat an eye lid because racism against whites is perceived as acceptable.

These "Anglo-Saxon men" are there because they earned their position; you know, they were elected. I find it quite offensive to insinuate that they are parliamentary members by some kind of devious, cunning plot. They are there because they worked hard to get there and the Australian people voted them in.

Jieh-Young Lo "I actually have the honour of representing two communities – first and foremost the residents of Monash and, in addition, the wider Chinese community."

Shouldn't you be just representing Australians regardless of ethnicity?

Imagine if an Anglo-Saxon councillor stated he "in addition" represented the Anglo-Saxon community? He would lose his job overnight by the moral condemnation of journalists and bloggers everywhere.

This double standard must rectified.

While 1 in 4 Australians are born overseas, it is a fact that the biggest contributing nations to our immigration intake come from Britain and the old Empire, such as Ireland. It is inevitable that they would have British names. Simply taking a look at the names on a list will not reveal their background- I have known of a few Asian people whose names have been distinctly Anlgo-Saxon because of a marriage in the distant (and not so distant) past.
What I find interesting is that the author identifies problems with English as the main reason for immigrants failing to participate in the political process, but that any measure to insist on the compulsory acquisition of those skills would likely be challenged by the author as being racist.
Indeed, the whole article reads like a 'poor fella me' tale where most, if not all, of the factors that contribute to a lack of engagement seem to be with the immigrants themselves but it is up to the rest of us to do something about it.

Multiculturism was one of the greatest rorts ever perpetrated on the Australian people, and multiculturism was recently declared a failure by a number of European leaders.

So why was that?

I would think that there is a yearning in each individual for a culture, and with a multicultural society, there is No Culture.

So lets have Australians only as our leaders, and not someone trying to represent several different cultures at the same time.

In essence, end immigration so the country can move forward and develop its own culture.

Cultural diversity in political parties and democratic institutions is an important challenge for Australian democracy. Australia must learn to harness the power of its cultural diversity by making it easier for new immigrants and new voices to contribute to the national debates and transformational projects.

Efforts need to be made by the Australian Parliament to empower communities and young emerging leaders in particular to become engaged in the political process in meaningful ways. Knowledge is power.

The Australian Macedonian community is encouraging young leaders to join political parties and to stand for office at local, state and federal levels. The response from the major parties and the Greens has been positive even though there is still a lot more that can be done to make cultural political inclusion a top priority for them.