Angus Taylor just alienated families like mine – and doomed the Liberal Party

May 15, 2026 — 1:30pm

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This will possibly be the second-last budget reply delivered by a Liberal MP. That reads as hyperbole until you sit with what Angus Taylor actually announced on Thursday night. The Coalition, he told the country, will strip non-citizens of the NDIS, Jobseeker, Youth Allowance and Family Tax Benefit. And this is the part Canberra’s press gallery has not properly digested: the policy includes permanent residents. Welfare for citizens only.

The political logic is straightforward. One Nation just demolished the Liberals in Farrer. Pauline Hanson’s primary is climbing. So the Coalition has picked up her policy folder and read straight from it. Pauline herself said the quiet part out loud: the Coalition has “finally seen the light”.

She was being generous. What the Liberals have actually done is sign a public confession that they no longer have a project of their own. But leave the tactical theatre aside. The truly remarkable thing about this announcement is that Angus Taylor has misread who actually lives in his country.

Roughly 4.5 to 5 million people in Australia are non-citizens.........

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