I've come across another link that may be of interest
and help to broaden the discussion somewhat. Once again
we are told that Asian Australians make up around 12%
of Australia's population they hold less than 4% of
senior leadership positions and that they are not only
under represented but it seems they are also under
appreciated.

The following link gives more:

http://www.pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/most-asian-australians-experience-discrimination

I've made the same mistake - asking Asian people - "What
part of China are you from?" without realising that I
was making them feel like outsiders. I won't be doing
that again.

Foxy,

I think your 12% figure is way off.

What peoples of the world do you consider are classified as Asian?

Mr O,

It's not my figure. It's that of the 2016 Australian
census.

And the Australian census includes 4 regions of Asia
in its official definition - Central and SE Asian, South
East Asian, and NE Asian - while middle Eastern are
classified as North African and Middle Easterners.

It will be interesting to see what will happen
at the next federal election here in the seat
of Menzies in Victoria. The seat has been
occupied for over 28 years by the conservative
Kevin Andrews - the "Father of Australian Parliament".

Mr Andrews has held the seat for several decades and
during the last election he was challenged by Stella
Yee, an impressive member of the community:

http://www.stellayee.community/pages/general/meet-stella

Interesting times ahead.

Foxy,

Asia covers that enormous land mass between Europe and the Pacific and the Arctic to the Indian Ocean.

Basically from Turkey to Japan and from Siberia to Sri Lanka.

All those Middle Eastern nations like Lebanon, Syria Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, etc. are Asian.

As you can see Asian is really a geographical definition not a racial / ethnic definition.

Gladys Berejiklian is Asian. Were you aware of that? Which might count for her popularity in Sydney where a lot of people are from Asia or descended from people who came from Asia.

I can tell you as a Sydneysider that if you travel around Sydney on public transport you will see mainly Asian passengers - very few caucasian people.

Mr O,

Do you know how long these "Asian" people that you're
describing have been here in Australia? Is it possible
that some of them did not "get off the boat/p;ane
yesterday?

I remember my husband being asked once by a nurse
in a public hospital - "Do you need an interpreter?"
I guess it was due to my husband's "foreign"
surname.

To which he replied in his Oxford English - "Why doesn't
the doctor speak English?"