Taylor’s immigration policy points to a ban on one kind of migrant

April 17, 2026 — 5:00am

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It’s easy to forget that not very long ago, when Sussan Ley was presiding over a Liberal Party civil war on immigration policy, everyone actually agreed on what the thrust of it would be. Immigration would be cut, by consensus. The fight was over on what grounds. Moderates wanted this to be about housing; about services keeping up with population. The conservative wing wanted it to be about values: to object not just to the numbers coming, but to the people themselves. It wanted to point the finger at certain cohorts and say bluntly: we don’t want you here.

Truth be told, the moderates lost that argument even under Ley. At one point, Ley spoke of immigration policy as an “infrastructure piece”, all roofs and roads. By the time Angus Taylor deposed her, her office had already dreamt up a policy that sought to ban entries from 13 countries in the Trumpian style; a policy that, upon being leaked, proved too unvarnished even for the newly minted conservative leader, who rebuffed it. But this week, when Taylor finally launched the Coalition’s long-awaited immigration policy, it became official. The moderates are vanquished. It’s migrants, as people, in the dock.

Specifically, migrants of “subversive intent”. Migrants who are a “net drain”. They’re the ones bursting through the “floodgates”, and “taking us for a ride”. It was therefore time to “take back control”; to halt the “Balkanisation of........

© The Sydney Morning Herald