Anna Koetz has lived in Australia for almost 25 years — she’s seen more than a few federal elections in her time.
Key points:
- Millions of non-citizen residents are related to or connected to voting Australians
- The impact of government policies on this demographic influences how citizens feel they might vote
- Some countries including New Zealand allow permanent residents to vote
“It’s a bit frustrating, because I do take an interest in what’s happening in Australia,” she said.
As a German permanent resident in Australia, Anna isn’t eligible to vote, but that doesn’t stop her having an influence.
She’s passionate about issues like climate change and the COVID-19 vaccination.
If something is frustrating her, she’ll talk about it with her husband.
“I bring topics home and we might talk about it,” she said.
Her husband Lachlan, an Australian citizen, said he hadn’t really thought about whether their conversations had an impact on how he votes.
“I guess it would, since I know more about what’s happening through her,” he said.
And when Lachlan fills out his ballot paper, he’s aware of how certain policies impact his wife.
“One thing that has affected Anna was that the government has been reducing funding of scientific research at universities over the years,” he said.
“That eventually led Anna to leave academia to become a teacher. And even though science teachers are needed, schools didn’t have permanent positions available, so she left that sector as well.
‘Punching down on people we love’
Anna is one of the millions of non-citizens — temporary visa and permanent residency holders, roughly 10 per cent of the population — who reside in Australia.
While non-citizens can’t vote, their partners, relatives, colleagues and friends can.
Jill Sheppard, an expert in Australian politics from the Australian National University, said non-citizens shouldn’t be overlooked when it came to elections.
“A lot of people know non-citizens,” she said.
“A lot of us work alongside them, we might have family who have come out here who haven’t been able to get citizenship yet.
Meanwhile, roughly 30 per cent of the Australian population — some 7 million people — were born overseas; a figure that includes both non-citizens and citizens.
Dr Sheppard said the way people vote was often strongly tied to their identity.
“If we do see governments and parties really punching down on people who we love, you know, if our families were locked out of Australia with border restrictions, if our partner can’t get a visa to join us here … that is obviously a huge part of the calculus that we use when we go to vote,” she said.
It’s something that Chinese Australian citizen Ivy feels strongly about.
The 39-year-old, who does not want her surname published, has voted Liberal in the past, but she says she’ll definitely switch to Labor this election because of her elderly parents’ experience trying to get to Australia from China.
Ivy said her parents weren’t eligible to visit Australia because they had received doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, which wasn’t recognised in Australia for people over the age of 60.
“And plus, I don’t think the federal government are doing a good job during this pandemic … it’s not controlled very well.”
Many non-citizens eventually become Australian, too
Dr Sheppard added that many non-citizens eventually go on to get Australian citizenship.
That rings true for British permanent resident Pierre Araman, who has lived in Australia on and off since he was 14.
Running an outbound tourism business, the pandemic hasn’t been easy on him.
“You’re basically not able to generate any revenue whatsoever,” he said.
“We couldn’t pivot to do any domestic tours, the barrier to entry is far too high.”
Pierre said the government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy was helpful, but didn’t last long enough.
“If you’d compare it to an area like the UK, they had their version of JobKeeper all the way up until October last year, whereas ours finished in March,” he said.
Soon, Pierre will become eligible to apply for citizenship.
Dr Sheppard said in some ways, non-citizens had closer relationships with politicians than citizens.
“A lot of the work that politicians do in the electorate is around immigration cases,” she said.
“One of the first contacts that a lot of migrants have is with their local politician.”
Some nations allow permanent residents to vote
David Fili, a New Zealand citizen with Samoan heritage who lives in north Brisbane, said he enjoyed attending community meetings with politicians in his electorate to talk about important issues.
“Those meetings involve people that are eligible to vote and non-voters like me,” he said.
For him, job security and improving local manufacturing capabilities are important issues.
He also enjoys chatting with family members who will be going to the polls.
“[We have] discussions around who to vote for and why and that sort of thing,” he said.
“I’m a Labor person. It’s mainly about supporting the middle-class population of the country.
“It’s always the case for me to look at it that way.”
In recent years, there have been pushes to allow permanent residents who have resided in Australia for a long time the right to vote, but to date it is still a privilege only afforded to citizens, as it is in most other nations and commonwealth countries like Canada or South Africa.
Permanent residents have the right to become citizens if they have lived here for more than four years, but gaining citizenship for some might mean forgoing another citizenship or nationality in order to do so.
David plans to apply for Australian citizenship and looks forward to voting when he’s eligible.
But Dr Sheppard thinks he shouldn’t have to wait.
“New Zealand allows permanent residents to vote.
“I would go even further and say that once you are living on Australian soil for more than 12 months, once you’ve lodged a tax return here, that you should be able to participate in our democracy.
“As long as we don’t do that, we do run the risk of really dampening the voices of a huge number of people who are participating in Australian society.”
Additional reporting by Jenny Cai
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