Although the 2006 Australian Census shows 59,402 people in Australia who claimed to be of Turkish ancestry, this is not a true representation of the entire community. Indeed, as early as 1994, "The Age" estimated that the Turkish Australian population was 150,000. By 2013 Louise Asher, who was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, said that the Turkish Australian community in Melbourne alone had numbered 300,000. More recently, the number of Turkish Australians who originate from Turkey reached 200,000 in 2017; meanwhile the Turkish Cypriot Australian community was estimated to number 120,000 in 2016.