James Morrow Opinion: Sussan Ley's focus on infrastructure undercuts Coalition's immigration message
The Liberal Party has finally twigged that immigration is a frontline issue, but a failure to insist that future migrants have values compatible with the Australian way of life would be a huge mistake, writes James Morrow.
Having nearly torn themselves apart over net zero, it is nice to see the Coalition finally deciding to target Labor over an issue that is straightforward and unemotional as immigration. What could go wrong?
As it turns out, plenty.
Use of the term “mass migration” has reportedly already divided the Liberal party room, with moderate MPs viewing the phrase as entirely too Trumpy for their vision of a modern Australia that is little more than an economic zone with really swell cuisines.
Talk of some sort of values test – either for migrants or new citizens – has been floated, but after decades of deliberate assault from the left no one can quite seem to agree what those values are.
About the only thing we do know is that the Coalition will not announce or nominate any target figure for Australia’s migrant intake, only a set of principles that should guide policy in the future.
Although (as with net zero) no one really knows what opposition leader Sussan Ley thinks personally about the question, she is clearly struggling to bridge this divide.
Asked about immigration over the weekend, Ley said of Labor, “this government has not got the balance right.”
Absolutely correct. But then, perhaps in a sop to her moderate colleagues, she added this: “It is not a failure of any migrant or migrant community – it is a massive failure of Labor governments to build the infrastructure we need.”
See the problem?
On the one hand, many Liberals are talking about values tests, including the party’s Home Affairs shadow Jonathan Duniam.
This is not just smart politics, it is just plain smart.
As anyone who has picked up a newspaper in the past two years will tell you, not everyone who has decided to make Australia home in recent decades has gotten the memo about what it takes to live in a tolerant, pluralist democracy.
Newcomers who were raised in cultures steeped in collectivism or misogyny or intolerance do not magically become fierce individualists and champions of change at the baggage carousel.
Acknowledging this is not to blame migrant communities, but to take the first step to help migrants become part of the Australian family.
Yet by focusing on infrastructure Ley undercuts these facts by implying that there are no values problems at all. Instead, she suggests that our generosity to newcomers is only limited by the number of houses, hospitals, schools and metro lines Australia can build to accommodate them.
As poll after poll shows a majority of Australian voters want to hit the brakes on migration, and as One Nation strips votes off the Coalition, this should not be that difficult a play.
With a bit more nous, the Coalition could exploit Labor’s massive weakness on immigration while at the same time neutralising One Nation’s appeal.
Australians do not need a PhD in economics to understand that Labor has not let a million people into the country – many on dubious pretences or languishing on bridging visas while “studying” at bogus training colleges and delivering takeaway – to win votes so much as to pump up GDP.
While average Australians have gone backwards in a per capita recession, the overall economy keeps sputtering ahead, largely powered by a big low skilled migrant cohort.
With housing a top concern, Labor’s jamming hundreds of thousands of people every year into an economy that is flat out supplying only around 240,000 new homes a year is sending rents (most new migrants aren’t buyers) through the roof.
Canada, whose economy and society is similar to ours in many ways, was until very recently experiencing many of the same migration driven pressures as Australia, giving the Coalition a great case study.
After the largest spike in immigration in their modern history post-Covid, Canada took steps to slash net overseas migration by around 90 per cent from its 2023 peak.
Much of this was driven by a crackdown on a student visa program that had previously been exploited by dodgy players in an education sector full of operators who had become little more than glorified migration agents.
And guess what?
Rents in cities like Vancouver, which had been ground zero for Canada’s population growth, fell by nine per cent.
In Toronto, they fell by 4.7 per cent.
The Coalition, which bobbled its immigration policy at the last election, cannot afford to make the same mistake again.
Again, the polls show that if the Coalition takes a hard line voters will come in behind them – no matter how much Labor, the ABC, and the Big Australia mob squeals.
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Originally published as James Morrow Opinion: Sussan Ley's focus on infrastructure undercuts Coalition's immigration message
