Vietnamese Australian lawyer Tu Le has taken out the major award at this year’s 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians celebrations.
The awards celebrate the country’s most accomplished Asian-Australians from various industries, including science, entrepreneurship, arts and culture and media.
Tu made headlines last year after being replaced by Kristina Keneally as the candidate for the lower house safe seat of Fowler — an electorate with a large Vietnamese diaspora.
As a community education lawyer at the Marrickville Legal Centre, Tu works in helping domestic violence survivors and people who can’t afford legal assistance obtain support — work which is personally meaningful to her.
At the awards ceremony last night, Tu was recognised for her community advocacy.
“Very proud and humbled to be one of 40 under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians for 2022, and be named the overall winner!” she tweeted.
The co-founder of YCollab – a social enterprise based in South West Sydney, and the Vietnamese Australian Forum, Tu also sits on the board of Addison Road Community Organisation — a charity focusing on social justice, arts and culture, and community sustainability.
Writer, playwright and comedian Michelle Law won the Arts and culture award, describing her win as “an incredible honour” on Twitter.
“This is such a special award not only in its celebration of our achievements but also in the way it connected us all across sectors and made the advocacy work feel a lot less lonely,” she wrote.
Law has had several commissioned plays run at the Sydney Theatre Company, and Belvoir Theatre, and this year, released her book “Asian Girls Are Going Places.”
University of New South Wales Associate Professor Rona Chandrawati took home the Science and Medicine award, just 12 months after being named a finalist for the 2021 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher.
I am so so proud of our Angie Tjandra @angienherphd! In just one week, she won two awards!🏆🏆 Congratulations Angie for winning first place in the UNSW New Wave Founders Program and….. https://t.co/TGV9T5mEac
— Rona Chandrawati (@ronachandrawati) September 28, 2022
As one of Australia’s leading researchers in colorimetric food sensory technology, Prof Chandrawati’s innovative research has been applied to areas including food safety, disease diagnosis and the treatment of glaucoma.
Her patented colour sensors are attached to food packaging to help prevent food waste — a huge issue in Australia, where up to 7.6 million tonnes of food is lost or wasted each year.
Property developer Belinda Bentley won the Entrepreneurship award, marking her second big win in less than 12 months. Last year, she won the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s Women in Leadership Award.
In 2016, Bentley co-founded the Sydney-based independent property investment and advisory group 9Springs.
She frequently lectures at the University of Technology, and mentors young women in the field of entrepreneurship, construction and business.
The Under 25 Rising Star award went to youth advocate and co-founder of Crafts and Convos, Angelina Inthavong.
Angelina Inthavong’s career in youth politics has focused on issues including period poverty, racism, and mental health access.
Angelique Wan and Dr Joyce Yu were the joint winners of the Community and Advocacy award for their role in co-founding Consent Labs, an education provider delivering consent education to schools and institutions.
One campaign titled #classifyconsent aims to call out scenes in a movie where a non-consensual act is “played for laughs, or supposed to be romantic.”
Martine Letts, CEO of Asialink, which sponsors the awards, said an Asia-capable and connected Australia is fundamental to Australia’s future.
“The 40 under 40 Awards are unique as they highlight for the first time the key contribution talented Asian-Australians make in all productive sectors of our community,” she said. “In the arts, research and education, media, sport, business and public life.”
Recent research from the Australian National University (ANU) found that 82 per cent of Asian-Australians report experiencing discrimination— the highest amongst all self-identified ethnic groups in the study.
The director of ANU’s Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership, Jieh-Yung Lo, believe the awards are critical in celebrating the incredible work being done by Asian people in Australia, but that more needs to be done to tackle racism.
“There is a lack of recognition of and focus on leveraging Asian-Australian talent,” Lo said. “We need to call out and address the negative impacts created by the bamboo ceiling.”
“Nearly one in five people in Australia has an Asian cultural heritage, yet only about 3 per cent of senior management positions are held by Asian-Australians.”
“The key barriers preventing Asian-Australian talent from reaching leadership roles within Australian organisations are cultural bias and stereotyping; westernised leadership models; lack of relationship capital such as access to mentors, sponsors and high-powered and influential networks, and the case for cultural diversity not understood within organisations and workplaces.”
“Asian-Australians have indicated from their personal and professional experiences significant levels of bias, discrimination and racism still existing against them in both work and non-work situations.”