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What does ‘Australian’ look like? Our identity crisis is hiding in plain sight

Jasmine Batra Australia-India trade adviser November 21, 2025 — 2.30pm Advertisement

Gurmesh Singh, the newly elected leader of the NSW Nationals, is the newest face of a much older question: Can you look Indian, Chinese or Vietnamese and still be accepted, without hesitation, as Australian?

Singh ’s great-grandfather migrated from Punjab in the 1890s. The family has lived in Woolgoolga for generations. Still, some have asked online: Is he really Australian?

“I’ve never seen myself as anything but Aussie” … Gurmesh Singh, the new leader of the NSW Nationals. Credit: Edwina Pickles

If a fifth-generation Australian whose family has been here for more than 1

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