Angus Taylor’s latest attempt to grasp any sort of relevance has laid bare the raw politics at the heart of Australia’s conservative movement, but it also raises an interesting question – what exactly are the “Australian values” he thinks migrants are not upholding?

“Those who migrate from liberal democracies have a greater likelihood of subscribing to Australian values,” he claims, which immediately rules out the US and Britain, both of which, according to the latest V-Dems report, no longer make the grade as “liberal democracy” and have been downgraded to “electoral democracy”.

That’s mostly because of crackdowns on freedom of expression and civil liberties, an authoritarian push led by those claiming to uphold the “values” of their particular nation, which apparently means limiting the civil rights of those protesting against a genocide, and the trampling of due process by democratically elected governments.

In that, Taylor has already been beaten to the punch by existing Australian governments, which have spent the better part of the past decade, and particularly the past three years, passing laws in an attempt to crush democratic dissent.

(Although it seems that our courts are at least still concerned with upholding civil liberties, even as parliaments continue to test them.)

Only 7 per cent of the world’s population – less than one billion people – now live in a liberal democracy. For the moment, Australians are counted among them. But are the “Australian values” Taylor speaks of eroding our own democracy? Because a return to a discriminatory migration policy would certainly help that slide.

Is it an “Australian value” to........

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