The fact that Tony Burke, Paul Keating and Andrew Leigh felt the need to formally respond to the recent speech on immigration by the leader of the opposition, Angus Taylor, is telling. If the contents were not going to resonate with the voting public, they would have let it pass.

The same can be said of the attention given to the speech by mainstream media journalists who described the speech as ‘Trumpian’, ‘racist’, ‘grubby’, a ‘desperate dog whistle’ and ‘just sad’. Many were affronted that Taylor could even question Australia’s immigration program.

They ran off to the ‘experts’, particularly at the Australian National University, to provide opinions that contradicted Taylor’s propositions. The belief in open borders is a key element of faith among the left.

There was a certain irony that Taylor should remark that, ‘Australians are fed up with politically correct preaching on immigration.’ You’re not kidding, when you see the soaring polling figures of One Nation.

There’s much to like about Taylor’s speech, which sets out what he calls the Coalition’s Australian Values Migration Plan. He makes the obvious point that when a country brings in too many people, including some with the wrong motivations, the character of the country changes.

‘Our nation has paid the price for believing that anyone, from anywhere, will embrace our way of life. 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. Not everyone wanting to migrate to Australia will integrate with the rest of our great country.’

His speech also referred to the link between excessive migrant intakes and the availability of affordable housing. This is top-order issue for many voters who feel locked out of the housing market. There are simply too many potential occupants chasing too few houses. In terms of political impact, the connection between high migrant intakes and housing should be one of the Liberal party’s key messages.

But let me get back to the pile on, particularly from B2, Tony Burke, the inimitable Home Affairs Minister. Like his pal Albo, B2 does politics a whole lot better than policy.  Policy details are not his strong suit.

But he felt the need to counter some of Taylor’s points by highlighting some of the weaknesses in the current immigration policy settings and the government’s intention to fix the problems – at some stage. It was quite hilarious when you think about it.

Take the case of overstayers, migrants who are here without any form of visa and are just ducking for cover should any inquiries be made about their legal status. It is estimated that there are between 65,000 and 75,000 illegal overstayers; the Albanese Labor government has done nothing material to get them to leave.

But it’s OK, B2 has a plan. In the next few months, he expects there to be moves to deport these overstayers. He will get back to us on the details.

Then there is the problem of the total number of temporary migrants and the rising percentage of the population on temporary visas. As a share of the total population, temporary migrants have gone from around 2.5 per cent in 2009-10 to over 6 per cent in 2023-24. The pre-Covid peak had been a tad under 4.5 per cent. We are talking over 1.6 million temporary migrants living in the country.

Again, B2 has a plan to get the number of temporary migrants down, it’s just that he hasn’t got around to implementing it. Given that most temporary migrants start off as international students, it was more than passing strange that an increase in the international student cap from 270,000 in 2025 to 295,000 in 2026 was agreed to by B2. It’s such a cunning plan, it involves an increase to achieve a decrease.

Then there is the hilariously bad Skilled Occupation List that still governs the permanent migrant program. Points are awarded for being on the list.

But here’s the rub: some of the occupations in short supply include dog handler, deer farmer, beauty therapist, amusement centre manager, advertising executive – that’s for our dear leader, Rowan – bed and breakfast operator and (drum roll here) economist. Just between you and me, the last thing we need in this country is more economists, particularly badly trained ones.

But again, B2 has a plan: to revise the list but he just hasn’t got around to it. It’s pages and pages of dubious inclusions, with the system gamed intensively by the employer groups, unions and state governments, in particular.

Why the Labor government thought they had to roll out Paul Keating from his retirement home to comment on Angus’s speech is not entirely clear. ‘Angus Taylor, for base political reasons, has elected to walk away from the best instincts of the Liberal party.…Racism is not simply immoral and abhorrent, it is absurd. The notion that some of us are in some way different to the rest of us – in some way born differently, of some alien biology.’

I’m not quite sure where Paul was going with that last sentence. And it’s not as if he can lay any claim to best-practice immigration policy when he was prime minister save for keeping a strict lid on annual migrant intakes.

The bottom line is this: Labor is worried about the strong anti-immigration sentiments that have been allowed to build up in the electorate. The polls have been clear for years: people want significantly lower migrant intakes.

But the Albanese government has preferred to leave all the immigration policy settings essentially unchanged and just hope that things settle down after the post-Covid surge in net migration. There are many interested parties with strong opinions in the immigration space; best not to unsettle the equilibrium, such as it is.

It now looks as though the numbers are not heading in the preferred direction, with the most recent figure on net overseas migration (long-term arrivals minus long-term departures) rising above 300,000. Jimbo, our Treasurer, tells us that the Treasury’s forecast of 240,000 net overseas migration for this financial year will be exceeded. Long-term departures remain stubbornly low.

The contrast with what has happened in Canada is stark. The canny Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has made some radical shifts in immigration policy, slashing temporary migrant numbers and setting a target for the share of temporary migrants in the population of five per cent.  (It had got to 7.6 per cent.)

Canada’s population is now barely growing, and the impact of rents and house prices is already showing up. To be sure, Carney had to take on the universities, but recent election results point to his growing popularity.

We now wait for part two of Taylor’s speech, which tells us about the numbers and the proposed visa changes. But given Labor’s hysterical reaction to part one, we should expect a favourable reaction to the Liberal party’s immigration policy from the punters as opposed to the elite.