Coalition leader Angus Taylor’s decision to go down the rabbit hole and offer Liberal Party voters a One Nation-lite variation on immigration is a risky gambit that reflects poorly on a political party that needs to appeal to a broader base.
Taylor unveiled the first part of his plan for an immigration crackdown in a provocative hardline speech to the Menzies Research Centre that pushed many of the buttons Pauline Hanson has been thumping for years.
His speech also carried echoes of the Trump administration’s ICE-style hardline approach to border protection and deportations, and proposed making compliance with Australian values a compulsory visa condition, introducing mandatory social media screening, reintroducing temporary protection visas after they were abolished by Labor in 2023, fast-tracking the rejection of unfounded asylum claims, and scaling up deportations.
Taylor said Australia had turned a blind eye to the reality that migrants from liberal democracies had a greater likelihood of subscribing to Australian values than those from places ruled by fundamentalists, extremists and dictators. “Our door has also been opened to people who, while rejecting hate and violence, nevertheless still reject our core values. People who don’t believe in equal rights for men and women. People who don’t believe in the rule of law and want to establish parallel legal systems. People who don’t believe in freedom of speech, association and religion,” he said.
Immigration is a pivotal component of the Australian economy. Numerous reputable studies show migrants add value both to the economy and to a diversified culture. National overseas migration has dropped from 429,000 in 2023-24 to about 306,000 for 2024-25. Labor has an annual target of 225,000 people over the next three years. The Coalition has started increasingly aping One Nation concerns about immigration numbers.
Taylor did not stipulate how many he proposed to cut from Australia’s intake.
Instead, he singled out one group for special attention. Taylor said the 1300 Gazans who made it to Australia after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 “present a clear risk to our country” and would have their visas reassessed.
It is a baseless, idiotic and ugly jibe, worsened by his failure to present any evidence that Palestinians in Australia represent a threat.
While it is legitimate to question the overall number of immigrants taken into Australia, hate-mongering and xenophobia should never be a ground for legitimate politics.
Australia is not, and does not want to become, a country that targets individual groups for exclusion or demonisation.
One Nation’s rise in the opinion polls and the unprecedented capture of four seats in the recent South Australian election spell big trouble for the National Party in particular and the Liberals in general. In the urban heartland, the right flank has gone to One Nation, the centre (and women) to the teals, and young voters to Labor and the Greens.
But rather than staunch the outflow of support, Taylor’s inflammatory speech doubled down and promoted social division; hardly an edifying moment for a politician aspiring to the prime ministership.
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