This shift shows state and federal governments have much more work to do. ACT Senator David Pocock has for a long time been pushing for federal parliament to examine Australia’s immigration system. He last year tried to get parliament to have an inquiry into population growth and planning in Australia but got zero support.
In a recent opinion piece Pocock said the population and immigration debate that boiled over on August 31 has been simmering for some time. “When governments fail to listen and plan, a vacuum opens up. This allows extremists – including white supremacists and neo-Nazis – to prey on people’s genuinely held concerns,” he wrote.
Like Pocock, the Herald is concerned about what can happen when anti-immigration sentiment can lead. The shameless charlatan Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party are riding high in the polls in the UK amid a large number of migrant boats crossing the English Channel. We are a long way off from an election but the chances of Farage taking the keys to Downing Street are not insignificant.
While Australia may have avoided a surge in far-right sentiment over recent years, we cannot afford to be complacent – or put difficult conversations in the too-hard basket.
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