The hypocrisy at the heart of the LNP’s migration rhetoric

The LNP’s mixed messaging on migration risks undermining its attempts to court multicultural Australia, writes Khushaal Vyas.

THE SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS of Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Senator Jacinta Price on Thursday are a perfect summary of the Liberal National Party’s breathtaking hypocrisy on migrants and the no-man's-land they find themselves in today.

Whilst Taylor spent his Thursday attempting to court Chinese-Australians on his budget reply, Senator Price was busy agreeing with the notion that Australia is being “flooded” by migrants of Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern and African heritage. Going further, Price appeared to imply that many do not subscribe to Australian values.

Once again, the breathtaking hypocrisy of courting migrants on the one hand and putting them in the crosshairs of the general public on the other is on full display. It has not gone unnoticed.

Of course, I would suspect that the LNP's response to my rant would be that we must be able to have a sensible conversation about migration. Sure, no worries; very happy to. However, if the LNP was genuinely seeking to have that conversation, it would be talking about migration generally, not singling out specific backgrounds.

Indeed, as an Australian of Indian heritage, it is extremely disappointing to see a mainstream party pander to the notion that some backgrounds are apparently “more Australian” than others.

But the ramifications of this rhetoric go beyond my own personal grievance. It normalises the kind of exclusionary narratives that have long been confined to the far-right fringe, emboldening those who view certain ethnic backgrounds as less deserving of belonging in Australia.

Feeding the rich, poor fed to wolves. Well done Angus!

Perhaps it’s no surprise that Opposition Leader Angus Taylor would seek to jump on the orange bandwagon by cosying up to One Nation, and emulating Trump, given the PHONies’ recent surge in popularity and the Libs’ ever-plunging support.

Put simply, it pours fuel on racist fires that I had hoped, perhaps naively, that Australia had long since moved beyond.

Sadly, the dog-whistling has not stopped there. After incorrectly blaming the housing crisis on migration, Taylor’s latest bid has been to block permanent residents from 17 welfare programs and effectively punish those residents for failing to hold an Australian passport. This is despite those same residents paying the same tax as the rest of us.

It is yet another example of the LNP’s decision to wedge Australians against migrants rather than genuinely trying to understand the migrant experience.

Indeed, for many migrants from countries that do not permit dual citizenship, becoming an Australian citizen comes at a cost. Beyond the often emotional choice of foregoing the nationality of one’s birth, there can be very real implications for those individuals (including added barriers to visit family overseas and legal status to manage overseas accounts and assets). It is not born out of some sort of anti-Australian or disloyal sentiment.

The senselessness of the divisive strategy by the LNP is that it has ostracised many aspirational migrants who may have otherwise formed part of its base. And yet, despite all of this, I’m sure we will still see LNP representatives at multicultural events shaking hands, giving crowd-pleasing speeches and wishing everyone an Eid Mubarak, a happy Diwali or Gong Hei Fat Choi.

But in the very next breath, those same representatives will be ready to parrot rhetoric that betrays those very communities. The hypocrisy isn’t hard to spot. Yet come next election, it seems inevitable that the LNP will be doomed to the fate of still somehow wondering why people won’t vote for it.