Even if it works and disillusioned conservatives drift back to the Coalition, the strategy of aping Pauline Hanson to get there will probably make it even harder for Angus Taylor to win over the broader electorate. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPView image in fullscreenEven if it works and disillusioned conservatives drift back to the Coalition, the strategy of aping Pauline Hanson to get there will probably make it even harder for Angus Taylor to win over the broader electorate. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPAnalysisTaylor’s Trumpian immigration pitch is aimed at fighting One Nation – but puts Australia’s identity at stakeDan Jervis-BardyThe Coalition might be in opposition to Labor but it is hoping to stem its loss of voters to Pauline Hanson
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It was not long ago that the notion of Australia as the world’s most successful multicultural country was not just a bipartisan political position but a source of national pride, expressed as enthusiastically by Liberals as their Labor counterparts.
“I believe, no, I know that Australia is the most successful multicultural immigration country on the planet,” the then Liberal prime minister, Scott Morrison, told the National Press Club in 2021.
The consensus has frayed in the years since, but it shattered on Tuesday when Angus Taylor all but declared that multiculturalism had failed in Australia.
In a speech outlining the first planks of a Donald Trump and Nigel Farage-inspired immigration agenda, the opposition leader cast statements such as Morrison’s as “blindly repeated mantras”.
There were lots of good migrants, Taylor stressed, repeating his praise for the workers who helped construct the Snowy Hydro scheme under the watch of his grandfather William Hudson.
But there was a second type of migrant, he said, who came to Australia with “subversive intent” and for “transactional reasons”.
“Not everyone wanting to migrate to Australia has a noble intent. Not everyone wanting to migrate to Australia will be a net benefit to Australia. Indeed, some will be a net drain,” Taylor told the Liberal-aligned Menzies Research Centre, presumably referring to subsequent waves of migration from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The content and tone of Taylor’s address was not a surprise, giving the emphasis he placed on “shutting the door” to “bad” migrants in his first press conference after ousting Sussan Ley as Liberal leader.
But that should not detract from how remarkable – and alarming – it is to hear such statements from an alternative prime minister.
The speech can, of course, be explained by the new political reality the Coalition is grappling with.
The Coalition might be in opposition to a Labor government but it is really fighting Pauline Hanson, whose brand of rightwing populism poses an immediate existential threat to the Liberals and Nationals across the country.
The package of proposals announced on Tuesday, including a Trump-style plan to speed up deportations of non-citizens and vet the social media histories of visa applicants, are aimed squarely at the masses of voters fleeing to One Nation.
That the announcement was made just weeks out from the Farrer byelection – the first test of whether the Coalition can defend federal seats from an insurgent Hanson – is no coincidence.
Asked if she had forced the Coalition into announcing a hardline immigration policy, Hanson told 2SM radio: “Of course, I have no doubt about it whatsoever.”
Read moreTaylor did not reveal a target for net overseas migration and the policies were un-costed. But Tuesday’s speech wasn’t about detailing a serious plan for implementation in government. It was about sending a message for how the Coalition wants to be seen.
It wants to be seen as tough. It wants to be seen as harsh.
“Australians are fed up with politically correct preaching on immigration,” Taylor said.
“Looking to parts of the UK and Europe, Australians see the erosion of national culture and the Balkanisation of communities that has come from immigration policies that have not prioritised values.”
Even if it works and disillusioned conservatives drift back to the Coalition, the strategy of aping Pauline Hanson to get there will probably make it even harder for Taylor to win over the broader electorate.
Comparisons with Trump and his “Make America Great Again” agenda derailed Peter Dutton’s 2025 election campaign as Labor ruthlessly exploited the US president’s unpopularity in Australia.
Trump is almost certainly more unpopular now given the direct pain his war with Iran is causing, making any comparisons even more damaging.
Taylor’s speech threatens to further alienate multicultural communities that have abandoned the Liberal party at the past two elections, even if those cohorts – such as Chinese and Indian Australians – weren’t the “subversive” and “transactional” migrants he was referring to.
Beyond the immediate political implications for the Coalition, there are bigger stakes in this debate for the type of Australia the nation wants to be.
Brought to life, Taylor’s Australia is not the most successful multicultural country in the world.
Dan Jervis-Bardy is Guardian Australia’s chief political correspondent
