Barnaby Joyce has called on the Liberal Party to “join One Nation” after Angus Taylor spectacularly claimed Australia should discriminate against migrants fleeing autocracies because they were less likely to share “Australian values”.
The Opposition Leader made the comments on Tuesday, while outlining the Coalition’s Australian values Migration Plan in an address to the Menzies Research Centre.
It proposed a discriminatory approach based on “Australian values” and confirmed the Coalition would create a taskforce to deport illegal residents from the country. Mr Taylor claimed migrants fell into two categories, with the vast majority being “those of noble, patriotic” character, while the other involved people with “subversive intent”.
“We’re proudly going to put Australian values at the heart of immigration policy,” Mr Taylor said.
This, alongside closing the door to people that “abuse the immigration system” and “showing a red line to radicals” were the three pillars of his policy.
He went through a range of measures to achieve those goals, including amending the Migration Act and creating a “joint agency taskforce to kick unlawful overstayers out of the country”.
He later added: “Those who migrate from liberal democracies have a greater likelihood of subscribing to Australian values compared to those coming from other places ruled by fundamentalists, extremists and dictators.”
Mr Joyce, who defected from the Coalition last year to join One Nation, said Mr Taylor “should have started that ceremony with an acknowledgment to One Nation”.
“To policies past, present and emerging of One Nation,” he told Sky News.
“So, look, they should just follow their membership of the Liberal Party and join One Nation.”
Mr Joyce questioned “how sincere” the Coalition were about their immigration platform and whether “they actually follow through”.
“Is that the rhetoric to try and get back votes from that they’ve lost One Nation, or are they actually going to follow it up? You have to put some meat on the bone,” he said.
One Nation has sought to capitalise on anti-immigration rhetoric, with leader Senator Pauline Hanson spectacularly claiming in widely condemned remarks that there were no “good Muslims”.
Mr Joyce took Mr Taylor’s sentiment one step further, accusing him of “dancing around” references to Islam.
He singled migrants from “anywhere where the Janjaweed are”, referring to Sudanese paramilitary accused of genocide, and residents of the Beqaa Valley, a mixed population area on Lebanon’s border with Syria which has seen Israeli strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Liberal Senator Jane Hume told the ABC on Tuesday afternoon she “cannot” say which behaviours would constitute a breach of Australian values under the Coalition’s policy.
“I can only tell you that those values that are already there, already outlined in the Australian values statement quite clearly are quite explicit about what is important to Australians,” she said.
“When we bring people to this country, the sort of things we expect them to abide by.
“Whether it be adherence and abidance to the rule of law, respect for democracy, tolerance of others, religious freedom, freedom of association, freedom of speech.”
Pressed on whether people needed to know what those behaviours are, Senator Hume continued: “I think they speak for themselves.
“People can see where there have been breaches.”
She continued: “I‘m not going to get into a rule in or rule out. I’m not going to get into a what if it was a protest here or rally there, that is a ridiculous argument.”
‘Hateful attack’
Mr Taylor then singled out a cohort of Palestinians who had fled Israeli bombardment in Gaza as “high-risk to our nation”.
The group had arrived in Australia between October 2023 and August 2024 after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.
But his plan drew the ire of advocacy groups like the Asylum Seekers’ Resource Centre, who described the policy as “horrifying” and a “hateful attack on migrant communities”.
Mr Taylor’s proposal undermined the refugee protection system, the right to seek asylum and would “demonise families fleeing persecution,” ARSC deputy chief Jane Favero said in a statement.
“This is out of touch at a time when we watch in horror at the humanitarian catastrophe in places like Gaza, Iran and Lebanon,” she said.
She accused Mr Taylor of playing Trumpian politics by “blaming migrants for problems created by politicians, instead of fixing them”.
US President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration has widely been characterised by mass deportations and a crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration. He has also twice used executive powers to ban migration from Muslim-majority countries.
“The Coalition’s immigration policy is vile and dangerous garbage, which is aimed at dividing our community and making us fearful of one another, at a time when what we need most is unity,” she said.
Ms Favero branded the Liberal leader’s rhetoric as “divisive” and claimed it harked back to the same “fear mongering” rejected by voters at the last federal election.
In May 2025, then-Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s migration agenda was one of a series of catastrophic policy failures that resulted in the Coalition’s historic electoral defeat.
Liberal MPs have since conceded the party paid a heavy price for blaming migrants for the housing crisis.
NSW Council of Civil Liberties President Timothy Roberts said the Coalition’s plan was “a Trumpian assault on our civil liberties”.
“This terrible vision for Australia is steeped in racism and a call back to a dark part of our history that we should be ashamed of and seek to learn from so it never happens again. Not a vision that we should replicate,” he said.
“Stripping legal aid and bypassing judicial oversight with an ICE-like taskforce isn’t “tough”, it’s a rejection of the rule of law.
“Making those who want to visit and join our community surrender their rights undermines all our rights and weakens Australian values at a time when we need them most”.
Earlier, Mr Taylor’s proposal also prompted criticism from the government, with Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy describing it as “desperate dog-whistling”.
Responding to advanced details, Mr Conroy said the Coalition had “zero credibility on immigration”.
“They let net migration explode after Covid, and now we’re just seeing desperate dog whistling from Angus Taylor, who’s desperately trying to compete with One Nation in a race to the bottom,” he told the ABC.
Mr Conroy is also Pacific Island Affairs Minister, putting him at the centre of migration arrangements with Australia’s smaller neighbours.
Australia relies on tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders to fill key roles, from agriculture to aged care.
Mr Conroy said the Coalition’s should be upfront with the “Australian public about what industries won’t get workers through their policies”.
“Who’s going to lose doctors, who’s going to lose nurses, who’s going to lose aged care workers?” he said.
“We’ve cut net migration by 40 per cent. We’re returning it to pre-Covid levels.
“That’s our plan, and we’re doing that in a measured, orderly fashion as we do all things.”
Asked about ensuring migrants share Australian values, Mr Conroy said that when he attends citizenship ceremonies, he only sees “new Australians eager to make their lives in Australia, eager to be part of Australia, to build their future here, to contribute to Australia”.
“There’s already tests in place that go to that,” he said.
“What we see here is a desperate distraction from Angus Taylor, who’s desperate for relevance in a world where he’s seeing his vote being eroded by One Nation.”
