Liberal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s April 14 address to the Robert Menzies Institute — a right-wing think tank — that his party will pursue an “values-based” migration scheme is the latest example of the ruling class’ bid to ramp up racism.
Taylor’s argument is that there is some unique “Australian value”. It is a dog whistle for all those who want to find a scapegoat, other than the government, for the worsening cost-of-living and housing crises.
His proposals include the introduction of “values” as a criterion for visa assessment, an expansion of visa cancellation powers and social media checks for visa applicants.
Taylor is promoting such measures on the basis of improving peoples’ living standards. In reality, he is pandering to the growing support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON) to which the Liberals have lost ground.
Disturbingly, he has targeted the 1700 refugees from Gaza as a possible security risk, without a shred of evidence.
Taylor’s call for an immigration policy based on “Australian values” reeks of ethno-nationalism and harks back to the White Australia policy, which limited non-white immigration. This is reflected in his suggestion that only migrants from Western democracies should be welcome here because they have a greater likelihood of subscribing to “our” values.
Ruling class politicians pontificating about so-called “Australian values” as a condition for migrating here rings hollow when we see those same MPs’ values in real time. Taylor and the Liberal Party have supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza, for instance, by standing with the Labor government.
Australia was founded on the attempted genocide and dispossession of First Nations people. Today, the capitalist state is continuing its colonialist policies, as it refuses to enact even basic democratic reforms, such as those recommended by the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody.
Talking up “Australian values” as a precondition for entry has another purpose: it softens people to the idea that the country should pursue a more militarised border.
Former Coalition Prime Minister John Howard started this process when he ordered Australian troops to board the Norwegian MV Tampa to stop the captain from attempting to deliver stranded asylum seekers to Australia.
The Liberal Party is now competing with PHON for votes, which will help push politics further right. PHON has taken credit for Taylor’s pitch.
While some Labor MPs have criticised Taylor’s speech, saying it is pandering to PHON voters, they have stopped short of condemning it as racist. Even worse, individual Labor figures, such as NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns, have come out in support of a “values-based” immigration policy.
This should not come as a surprise, given Labor’s track record on migration over the past several years.
Labor, despite claiming to oppose the likes of PHON, has steadily implemented policies that include aspects of the far-right’s anti-immigration policies. For instance, it refused to allow the 33 so-called ISIS brides to come back to Australia and it invoked arrival control powers to ban Iranians from travelling here after the latest war started.
Labor expanded migration powers allowing it to deport refugees to third countries, cut off lifelines for people in detention by seizing mobile phones and conduct invasive, unwarranted searches in immigration detention.
Labor has been an active participant in fuelling the anti-immigrant rhetoric, shifting the blame from itself.
At the same time, ruling class politicians from PHON to the Liberal Party have attempted to justify their anti-immigrant rhetoric by arguing that it’s a driving concern for “ordinary Australians”.
However, research by Kos Samaras from RedBridge found that a recent poll found that 60% blame politicians and big business CEOs for rising prices and interest rates. Just 6% blamed migrants.
We must reject the right wing’s campaign to scapegoat immigration for the decline of ordinary people’s living standards.
The Socialist Alliance says real solutions to address declining living standards starts with challenging the billionaire class and the politicians that serve their interests.
That is why we call for higher taxes on the super rich. The only way to force the government to stop its corporate hand-outs and redistribute the capitalists’ obscene wealth is with a fight. That’s why you should join us.
[Jacob Andrewartha is a national co-convenor of the Socialist Alliance.]