When the immigration minister, Tony Burke, approached the National Press Club podium on Thursday, the eyes of every migrant in the country would have been fixed on him. But, in fact, Burke’s address was a message for all working people across the country – and a signal of the times ahead for all of us.

The past 12 months have seen all sides of politics cohere around the consensus articulated in the introduction to Burke’s address by the press club’s president, Tom Connell: “there is furious agreement over a need for a cut to immigration.” The only difference across the political spectrum is in the detail: who deserves to be cut, and who is valuable or otherwise deserving enough to remain.

In fact, judging by the tenor of current debate, it would be easy to think that immigration is the only economic lever available to the government to address housing affordability, falling wages and cost-of-living pressures. To test that theory, consider whether, over a Sunday lunch, your uncle is more likely to proffer an opinion on tax settings driving housing speculation, the corporate supermarket duopoly or........

© The Guardian