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Sussan Ley has pre-empted a new conservative Liberal threat to the stability of her leadership by opening a debate on lower migration on the same day her party’s conservative flank triumphed in its anti-net zero push.
The opposition leader put migration on the agenda at the annual John Howard Lecture on Thursday night, just hours after settling her party’s internal debate over net zero by siding with the Nationals over her Moderate colleagues, preserving her leadership for the immediate future.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley moved ahead of conservatives in her party to open a debate about migration just hours after landing a position on emissions.Credit: Louie Douvis
Former prime minister John Howard, who was in attendance at the Menzies Centre event, used a question-and-answer session to ask Ley what policy issue she wanted to thrash out next.
“One is migration,” she replied, to applause. “I have said it needs to be lower.”
“I think this is a conversation Australians are up for, and we will do it in a respectful way, and we will develop a policy that recognises it’s not just about one overall number. It’s about a variety of strands, whether it be the humanitarian intake, skilled visas, working holidaymakers, and how that is mapped, if you like, to the needs and the aspirations of different parts of the country.”
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Australia’s population has grown by about 1 or 2 per cent a year for the past two decades. Declining birth rates mean most of that growth has come from migration. Migration surged after the COVID-era border closures were lifted, but has been declining since.
Ley said Howard, who adopted a muscular response to unlawful arrivals but increased legal migration, understood the importance of managing the issue better “than almost any prime minister since”.
Ley will be under intense pressure from the Coalition’s conservatives on the issue, who have been emboldened by their triumph over the Moderates on energy policy, and have already caused internal ructions over migration.
The opposition leader sacked Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from her frontbench in September after the senator suggested Labor was bringing Indian migrants into the country to gain votes, and then refused to support Ley’s leadership. Price later said her words were taken out of context.
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In a reflection of the damage control Ley undertook after Price’s comments, and indicating the direction she hopes to take in prosecuting a case against Labor’s policies, Ley said on Thursday: “The problems we’re facing are not the fault of any migrant or migrant community. They are failings of infrastructure.”
She said it was the government’s fault that there weren’t enough schools, roads and hospitals because of a lack of planning and the wasting of public funds.
Andrew Hastie, considered by many colleagues as a prospective challenger to Ley, quit the frontbench last month after claiming he had been sidelined from developing the Coalition’s immigration policy despite his role as the Coalition’s home affairs spokesman.
On Friday, Ley batted away suggestions that dumping net zero could pave the way for the return of rebellious backbenchers to the shadow ministry, which she labelled as “solid” in its current form.
“My frontbench is my frontbench, but everyone has a role to play,” the opposition leader told Sky News. “It’s not about where you sit in the parliament. I’ve always said that, and the passionate views of every single member in this debate are extraordinarily welcome.”
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