EDITORIAL: Immigration a tough test for weakened Labor

All at sea and battered by an angry orange swell, Labor looks set to pivot to a position the young Anthony Albanese would have baulked at.

On Thursday, his Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke is due to set out the government’s immigration policy at the National Press Club in a speech titled: “The work of managing the migration program: who arrives, who stays, who leaves”.

Feeling the weight of One Nation’s rise, Mr Burke is widely expected to propose specific measures to significantly reduce what is known as net overseas migration, a way of measuring the population change.

The announcement is expected to detail how Labor will reduce net overseas migration from about 300,000 in 2025 to 245,000 in 2026-27 and 225,000 per year thereafter.

It follows Pauline Hanson’s announcement on Monday to “implement the will of the people” by delivering net negative overseas migration.

But this is not just about immigration policy. It’s about how a punch drunk Labor thinks it might be able to woo back some of those Pauline-curious supporters who flocked to One Nation, a party that so cleverly tapped into the sense of fear and helplessness in the community — not to mention the apathy for a Government that can’t read the room and seems to make policy like they’re all blindfolded, trying to pin the tail on the proverbial donkey.

It was only last month that Burke was due to front the National Press Club — and the Australian people — to outline Labor’s plan to cut immigration.

The appearance was abruptly aborted with little explanation, allowing observers to draw inevitable conclusions about dissent in the ranks and talk of yet another backdown on a key plank of the party’s platform (need we return to capital gains debacle?).

Now, after weeks of uncertainty and speculation during which time the Liberal Party and One Nation were given the space and time to dominate the conversation around immigration, Burke will make his pitch.

And it’s an important one because Angus Taylor and Pauline Hanson can talk a big game but Albanese is the only one in a position to actually effect change.

But at what cost?

In taking an ‘immigration lite’ approach, Albanese hopes to appeal to a community on edge; to people watching the dollars tick over on the petrol bowser and trying not to drop a week’s salary on a trolley of groceries, to parents resigning themselves to the fact their kids might never own a home.

These people who firmly believe that cutting migration will contribute to an improvement in their personal circumstances and ease their struggles.

But on the other hand, small businesses across many industries including hospitality and trades are crying out for skilled migrants so they can remain profitable while delivering goods and services to those same people — at an affordable price.

Labor has found itself in an impossible position, trying to manage the expectations of two very different sectors of the community while desperately trying to wrest back control of the narrative, but it remains to be seen just how much they have to say.

Responsibility for this editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore