One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has claimed that Angus Taylor is copying her policies but won’t deliver on them, after the Liberal leader used his first major policy speech to toughen his migration stance by dismissing the UN’s Refugee Convention and insisting all permanent visa holders must speak English.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Taylor was appealing to Hanson’s voters by calling for Australia’s immigration system to start discriminating based on values, while Labor’s Pat Conroy accused him of “desperate dog whistling” in an attempt to compete with One Nation.
Taylor harked back to post-war European migration as the gold standard in his speech to the Menzies Research Centre on Tuesday morning, where he elaborated on extracts released the night before that claimed too many self-serving migrants were becoming a drain on the country.
In laying out his argument for enhancing social media screening and tying visa conditions to the Australian values statement, Taylor cited last year’s Bondi terror attack, “genocidal marches in major cities”, antisemitism and radical Islamic preachers as examples of falling migration standards.
NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane and several federal colleagues supported Taylor’s speech, which also revealed the Coalition would restrict Labor’s 5 per cent house deposit scheme to Australian citizens, but it was otherwise condemned by Labor, the Greens and refugee advocates.
Hanson, on the other hand, welcomed the Liberal Party’s new message. “I’m pleased to hear that Angus Taylor has listened to my policies, he had to do so after our rise in the polls and the result in South Australia,” she said.
“But do I trust them to deliver like One Nation does? No, because the Liberal Party is full of moderates … It’s the same rhetoric, but they won’t carry it through. I don’t think they will go far enough.”
Hanson’s party has surged above the Coalition in major national opinion polls, causing an identity crisis for the Liberals as immigration becomes a heated political issue around the world.
Labor has been tightening migration settings, including by making it easier for the minister to cancel visas on character grounds. Overall numbers have come down after reaching record highs following the pandemic, but annual arrivals still remain above the long-term average. Research shows domestic concern over immigration has coincided with an uptick in worry about housing and the economy.
Burke on Tuesday said that “not one line in the speech would deliver an extra job, create an extra house or keep anyone safer”.
“[Taylor’s] diatribe has nothing to do with the national interest and is entirely about sending a vibe to One Nation,” he said.
“Millions of Australians will be asking ‘why do the Liberals have a problem with their parents, who don’t speak great English but are great Australians?’”
Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume could not explain how the values statement would be enforced, but said the idea should be uncontroversial as she batted away comparisons to Hanson.
“I do not think that, just because you have a migration policy, you should be accused of being One Nation lite,” she said on ABC. “A well-managed migration policy has been part of the great Australian story for decades.”
Refugee remarks spark backlash
Taylor evoked former Liberal prime minister John Howard, who was in the audience on Tuesday morning, as he explained that his plans to designate certain nations “safe countries” would mean asylum applicants from those places should expect to be refused and deported.
“To those who say we will be in breach of the Refugee Convention: we will decide who deserves protection and the circumstances in which that protection is granted,” he said.
The 65,000 non-citizens who remain in Australia after exhausting protection claims, by exploiting loopholes in the asylum system, were one target of Taylor’s speech, as were the 1300 Gazans who came to Australia after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The Liberal leader said the Gazan cohort were a risk to Australia and needed to be vetted again.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre described the speech as a “hateful attack on migrant communities” without evidence, that undermined the protection system.
“He’s made it clear the Coalition intends to copy Donald Trump, by blaming migrants for problems created by politicians, instead of fixing them,” said Jana Favero, the centre’s deputy chief executive.
The Refugee Council of Australia said Taylor had praised European migrants of the 1950s and 60s as people who loved Australia’s freedoms after fleeing war, “but failed to understand that more recently arrived migrants and refugees feel exactly the same way”.
“Many migrant and refugee community members are reporting that the abuse they are experiencing on Australia’s streets is increasing and some community members say they fear going out in public,” they said.
NSW Liberal senator Maria Kovacic, aligned with the party’s moderate faction, defended Taylor’s speech, and said the important point was that “we are calling time on unfounded asylum claims and system abuse”.
“This also sends a signal to extremists and radicals that they are on notice, that the nearly open-door policy will no longer exist. We will be screening at a greater level than we have before and people won’t get to come here and spew their hatred,” she said.
But another Liberal MP, who asked not to be named, criticised the speech as “performative” and suggested Taylor was nervous about One Nation’s growing support.
“ASIO are looking at social media anyway, it’s nothing new, it is being done. The speech is rank populism out of fear about losing his own base … and it’s about the [May 9] Farrer byelection,” the MP said.
“[Taylor’s] strength is economics, he should stick to that. But he is struggling at the moment, so he has entered the culture wars.”
Independent MP Zali Steggall said Taylor’s comments risked “fuelling hateful and divisive narratives about migration”.
“It unfairly targets communities who make an enormous contribution to Australia’s society and economy, and it distracts from the real policy challenges we need to address,” she said.
Greens senator David Shoebridge said: “The Coalition’s plan to reintroduce a 2026 version of the white Australia immigration policy shows they have been captured by extremists. Angus Taylor’s attack on Palestinian refugees from Gaza just confirms it.”
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Natassia Chrysanthos is Federal Political Correspondent. She has previously reported on immigration, health, social issues and the NDIS from Parliament House in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
James Massola is chief political commentator. He was previously national affairs editor and South-East Asia correspondent. He has won Quill and Kennedy awards and been a Walkley finalist. Connect securely on Signal @jamesmassola.01Connect via X or email.