When Tony Burke suddenly cancelled his appearance at the National Press Club in August, it was pretty obvious he had been hauled over the coals. Or perhaps the solar panels. Anyway, it was ridiculous that he got dacked (or ‘pantsed’ for the posh people who suffered a ‘flushing’ at the hands of the Great Unwashed) in front of the entire polis.

I saw Tony Burke at an event at the National Museum of Australia a few years back. I’ve been to some great events there over the years. The best was convened by the Alliance Française de Canberra some twenty years ago. I remember wondering how I’d cracked the Canberra Bubble. It was such a great night.

The venue is wonderful. When I heard Icehouse were playing at the National Museum and I had an invite as a Friend of the Museum, we went. Icehouse are one of those iconic Australian bands that were part of my teenage years. Great Southern Land is one of their songs I used to like the best.

But at their gig at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, Tony Burke, then Minister for the Arts, used it as an opportunity to bang on about Aboriginal politics.

He had that smug authority that politicians get when they think they speak for everyone in the room. For me, he killed any of my nostalgia for Icehouse and any of my nostalgia for the National Museum of Australia.

A few Australian artists who didn’t jump on the naivety of the pro-Palestine bandwagon include Deborah Conway, Holly Valance, and Gary ‘Angry’ Anderson. Angry was on a sold-out tour of Europe but suffered a cardiac arrest recently. I hope he is okay. Deborah Conway suffered for being Jewish. Holly Valance makes me reconsider my view of Neighbours and all that gumph I hated as a teenager.

My point is that when artists cross over from entertainer to politician, they isolate about half of their fans. But it seems to be par for the course these days.

Returning to Tony Burke, he ruined my personal experience of Icehouse. The band made their decision, and I have made mine. But the poncing about of the Minister for the Arts exposed, in my opinion, his penchant for all things annoyingly self-indulgent.

Labor are hell-scared of One Nation because, in my opinion, Labor don’t care about their traditional supporters, they only care about votes. Immigrants typically love Labor in the same way immigrants in the UK and the US love Labour and the Democrats, respectively. A percentage of this group move from their failing countries so they can take advantage of our generous safety-net offerings, then use these to recreate the situation they wished they could have at home. Well guess what? This is our home. Those who come here are our guests, not our new masters.

Tony Burke saw the writing on the wall for his position and was probably going to announce a reduction in immigration. But those to the left of Tony Burke (can you imagine such people exist?) weren’t happy. After weeks of suspense, Burke finally turned up. And surprise, surprise, his immigration policy has nothing to do with improving anybody’s position, except Labor’s.

Burke’s announcement on September 17 targeted international students and Working Holiday Maker (backpacker) visa holders as part of a broader effort to bring net overseas migration down toward 225,000 by 2028 from recent levels around 292,000-300,000.

The key changes included barring most students from bringing partners or children (with exceptions for Pacific and ASEAN students plus PhDs), requiring students to progress to a higher qualification to extend stays (ending ‘visa hopping’ into lower or equivalent courses), introducing a ballot with tight caps for backpacker second- and third-year extensions (45,000 down from 57,000 for year two, 5,000 down from 31,000 for year three), and adding a ‘no further stay’ condition on visitor visas.

If you do even a little research, you will find that these groups are overwhelmingly temporary and non-voting. It’s pretty clear the Labor government is tightening rules on cohorts that contribute little to Labor’s electoral base.

Students and backpackers cannot vote. Citizenship requires permanent residency first, then typically four years of residence plus other conditions. Recent arrivals under Labor are not yet eligible.

Settlement data also shows most do not stay long enough to naturalise. For example, roughly half of international students leave after their studies. About 70 per cent of working holiday-makers leave within seven years, the majority within two years of arrival. Only about one in five of the 2006-2016 temporary-arrival cohort had become citizens after seven years.

The post-pandemic intake is even more temporary. Temporary skilled workers convert at far higher rates (about 70 per cent). Cutting these two streams therefore reduces numbers without immediately shrinking the citizen electorate.

Non-voting status, low naturalisation rates, and the regional versus urban split suggest that the government is reducing inflows from groups that either never vote or, like backpackers, cannot vote for Labor in the immediate future.

Burke’s long-awaited announcement followed One Nation’s call for much steeper temporary-migrant cuts and occurred amid high net migration remaining a live issue. Burke denied the changes were a response to the ‘political climate’, but the measures focus on non-voting, high-churn temporary streams rather than permanent family or skilled categories that more readily produce citizens.

It’s a smack in the mouth for ordinary Australians who are doing it tough. Not only are Labor colonising Oz Rock, but they are turning everything we hold dear into a great big farce.

Labor doesn’t give a toss about Australia. They only want to be in government to experiment with our country for their socialist ideal, one that has never worked. Great Southern Land, my arse.

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you’d like to support his writing, please shout him a drink over at Donorbox.