Australia is ready for an immigration reset
the coalition’s proposed immigration reforms places the national interest at the centre of public policymaking. by freya leach.
First published in the MRC’s Watercooler newsletter. Sign up to our mailing list to receive Watercooler directly in your inbox.
For years, Australians were told that mass migration was an unquestionable good. We were told diversity is always our strength, that raising concerns about numbers was mean-spirited and that any attempt to link immigration to housing pressure, social fragmentation or cultural change was beyond the pale. That consensus is breaking down. Ordinary Australians can see the strain for themselves, and they are no longer willing to be lectured into silence.
A Fox and Hedgehog poll released last month shows 60% of Australians say there are too many migrants in Australia. Remarkably, 59% of first-generation migrants concur. A YouGov poll from January 2026 found 64% of voters wanted lower immigration, compared to just eight per cent favouring either a small or big increase, with 43% of respondents wanting a “big cut”. Even 51% of non-English speaking households supported a cut to immigration.
That is why the speech Angus Taylor delivered to the Menzies Research Centre earlier in the week was so critical.
A genuinely conservative approach to tackling immigration
What Taylor offered was more than a policy announcement. It was a serious diagnosis of how Australia arrived at this point and a clear statement that the national interest must once again sit at the centre of public policy, particularly when it comes to immigration.
He made five observations. First, past governments have embraced the benefits of globalisation without being sufficiently alert to the risks. Second, Australia has grown too comfortable under the security of American predominance. Third, leaders have blindly repeated slogans about multiculturalism and diversity without seriously confronting the consequences of large-scale immigration. Fourth, energy ideology has replaced energy pragmatism. And fifth, that Covid made Australians more accustomed to a less accountable and bigger government.
In making this speech, Angus Taylor showed he is not just a leader with conservative instincts. He is advancing a genuinely conservative philosophy. What he outlined was a nationalist vision for Australia, one that sits closer to the tradition of Menzies than to the more abstract, universal language of modern liberalism.
The Liberal Party has always been at its strongest when it balances liberalism and conservatism. Taylor’s observations reflect a conservative understanding that nations are not abstract economic zones. A government’s first duty is not to do whatever is fashionable in Davos or Geneva. Its first duty is to its own people. This marks a return to what made the Liberal Party the most electorally successful Party in Australian history. It was John Howard who said “we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come”. It was Menzies who said “we desire to organise the future of our own country in our own way”.
Immigration needs to be properly managed, not run on autopilot
Australia is one of the best countries in the world. It is no surprise that millions of people would want to come here. That is not something to resent and it certainly is not the fault of migrants that Australia is an attractive destination. But it does not follow that immigration should operate on autopilot or that we must accept without protest every social and economic consequence of rapid population growth. If immigration is not properly managed, Australia will not remain the country people wanted to come to in the first place.
Most Australians intuitively understand that immigration levels affect everything from housing affordability, infrastructure, wages and national culture. Yet for years we’ve been told that migration had no meaningful effect on the character of a country. That claim is absurd. Of course population change on a large scale changes a nation. Culture is not suspended from demographics. A nation is shaped by who lives there, what they believe, how they relate to one another and whether they feel a common sense of belonging.
The warning signs are now visible. Population growth from 2023 to 2025 was 1.5 million, while housing completions over the same period were 527,222. Housing simply has not kept pace and cannot keep pace with immigration at these levels. Australians do not need an economic model or a policy white paper to tell them this basic fact of supply and demand. They feel it every time they pay rent, inspect a crowded apartment or watch the dream of home ownership slip further out of reach.
Restoring social cohesion critical to restoring a sense of belonging
The social consequences are just as serious. The latest Scanlon social cohesion findings show that just 32 per cent of overseas-born Australians from non-English speaking backgrounds feel a strong sense of belonging in Australia. Even more concerning, the gap between generations appears to be widening. Since the early 2010s, the sharpest declines in belonging have occurred among younger Australians. Among Australian-born Millennials, the share reporting a strong sense of belonging fell from an average of 64 per cent in the 2010 to 2012 surveys to just 34 per cent in 2025. Among Gen X, it dropped from 77 per cent to 53 per cent. And among Australian-born Gen Z, only 31 per cent report a strong sense of belonging today.
Social cohesion cannot be endlessly assumed. It must be cultivated, protected and sustained. A nation works best when people share not just a postcode, but a deeper sense of attachment to one another and to the country itself.
Immigration policy that serves the national interest
This is why Taylor’s intervention is so significant. He is challenging the naïve assumption that immigration is always an unqualified good and that any criticism of scale is somehow a criticism of migrants themselves. It is not. A nation can be welcoming and grateful for the contribution of migrants while also insisting that immigration policy must serve the interests of the Australian people.
The Coalition will:
Make adherence to the Australian Values Statement a binding visa condition. Migrants who breach those values would risk visa cancellation, and those who fail to uphold them would be denied citizenship.
Crack down on abuse of the system by restoring Temporary Protection Visas, introducing a Safe Country List to fast-track visa denials and removing incentives for unfounded asylum claims.
Strengthen national security screening and establish an Enhanced Security Screening Centre to stop extremists before they enter Australia, including screening social media.
Provide additional funding for border enforcement to remove the 77,000 people illegally in Australia.
End access for non-citizens to taxpayer-funded home ownership schemes, reserving those programs for Australian citizens only.
Why enforcement matters
The focus on stronger enforcement also reflects a basic principle that should never have become controversial: laws mean something. If people have no legal right to remain in Australia, they should leave. A migration system without enforcement is not compassionate. It incentivises lawbreaking while penalising those who follow the rules. This point was underscored by Home Affairs data released this week showing there are 77,000 illegals in the country on cancelled visas. A staggering 25,000 have been here for over a decade.
While 5,158 onshore visas were cancelled last calendar year, just 1502 non-citizens were actually “removed or deported from Australia following visa cancellations”. Taylor was right to point to Europe and the UK as examples of countries who lost control of their borders and are now suffering the consequences. Australia does not need to copy those mistakes. We can learn from them.
What Australians want is not cruelty, nor bitterness, nor an inward-looking nationalism. They want balance, seriousness and self-respect. They want an immigration system that is generous but disciplined, confident but not naïve, and always ordered towards the good of the nation first.
That is what makes this moment important. Angus Taylor has articulated a position that many Australians already hold instinctively: immigration policy should be about serving our national interest.
