At a time when his party has a real opportunity to throw out the playbook of the past, Angus Taylor seems woefully ill-equipped to lay out a vision for Australian goodness.

This past weekend the Liberal leader made remarks about “bad people” coming to Australia from “bad countries”, claiming: “There is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries.”

He has form. In the weeks since the Liberals unveiled their new immigration policy, Taylor has been singularly focused on winning votes from One Nation.

Bizarrely, his strategy has included punching down at communities fleeing harrowing attacks by US and Israeli military forces. He has argued that a small group of people from Gaza who have arrived on visas, present “a high risk to our nation”. At the weekend, he gave Iran as an example of a “bad country” that might send “bad people” to Australia.

The comments are heartless. Fifty-six per cent of the 75 000 people killed by Israeli bombs and snipers in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 5 January 2025 have been women, children and elderly people; in Iran between 175 and 180 people, most of them schoolgirls, were killed by US bombs on the first day of the war.

But at a political level, Taylor’s approach is baffling. At the last election, voters sent Liberals the........

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