A year after Hastie’s warning, Taylor has a solid migration plan. Hanson has the voters

October 6, 2026 — 4:30pm

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It’s been one year to the week since Liberal MP Andrew Hastie quit Sussan Ley’s frontbench to speak his mind on migration.

Hastie thought it was a hot-button issue that required a tough response from the Coalition to appease growing cynicism about the post-pandemic immigration surge. That turned out to be prescient.

I don’t need to spell out how much Australia’s political landscape has changed since then, particularly on the right, but the immigration debate has only gotten hotter. Through it all, the Coalition has been looking for its white whale: a credible migration policy that swims with the currents of conservative politics without sinking the economy

They finally made a go of it on Tuesday, when Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and outgoing home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam released their plan to reduce immigration levels.

The Coalition have done their homework. Their presentation was far more detailed than the shambles former leader Peter Dutton took to the last election, which crumbled before his eyes during the campaign. Dutton committed to targets on the fly, then ruled visas in and out as questions came thick and fast, until there was no possible way for the arithmetic to make sense.

The sensible question for Taylor is whether his policy matches the numbers. The political........

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