By Jake Evans
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Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has rebuked Liberal leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie’s claim that Australians were becoming “strangers” in their own country due to immigration, saying the country must feel “strange” to an outdated Liberal Party.
The WA Liberal MP wrote on social media on Wednesday that he believed “we’re starting to feel like strangers in our own home” due to what he called “unsustainable” immigration.
“In the last two years, we’ve added nearly a million extra people to our population,” Mr Hastie, the shadow home affairs minister, wrote.
“Australians are feeling the impact of Labor’s immigration policy.”
Meanwhile, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data estimated migration rates have fallen substantially from the post-COVID bump.
The Coalition’s official stance is that permanent and temporary migration to Australia must be cut, though it has not developed a formal policy.
But as it continues a major review of its policy platform, the interventions by Mr Hastie — who openly touts his desire to lead the Liberals — have caused ire within the party.
In recent days, he has shared a series of posts on social media floating policy positions, accompanied by nostalgic images of Australia from decades ago.
Yesterday, Mr Hastie lashed out at “nameless cowards” and “muppets” who had backgrounded against him in the media over one of those posts.
That won the public support of other conservatives, including Matt Canavan and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who was sacked from the shadow frontbench after refusing to apologise over comments she made about Indian migrants that set a wildfire running through the party.
The tumult stems from internal debate in the party over its approach on several core policy issues, including on foreign affairs, immigration and climate change — and a factional fight over the party’s future direction.
Raising the issue of immigration policy, Mr Hastie wrote that net overseas migration — the total of all people who have entered Australia minus those who have left in a given period — must be brought down, suggesting it was making Australians “strangers” in their country.
Mr Burke hit back at Mr Hastie’s suggestion that Australians were being made to feel like “strangers”.
“Modern Australia must be strange to a Liberal Party that stubbornly refuses to enter the 21st century,” Mr Burke said.
“Net overseas migration is down more than 40 per cent. Mr Hastie’s conviction is cosplay unless he can name the specific visa classes he wants to slash.”
Mr Hastie responded that Mr Burke was presiding over “uncontrolled immigration in Australia”.
“What is his plan for reducing migration numbers? Or does he take orders from Big Business and the universities?” he asked.
“My bet is that he will put Australians last.”
Net migration appears to have fallen to long-term trend
Australia’s population grew by 423,400 people over the year to March 31, 2025, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates — about 1.6 per cent.
Net overseas migration made up 315,900 of that amount, 177,900 less than the year earlier — suggesting population growth has slowed.
Migration rates have fallen across all temporary visa types, with the largest falls among international students and visitors.
The Australian National University’s Migration Hub said net overseas migration had “caught up” to the post-pandemic rebound, with the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data suggesting migration had fallen back to its long-term average.
“What has and is happening in Australia can be seen as a classic example of over-reaction to a temporary shock,” it said last week.
Despite that, housing shortages, transport pressures and other infrastructure demands have fuelled a debate on Australia’s migration levels to which both the Coalition and Labor are sensitive.
Mr Albanese was careful not to condemn all attendees of anti-immigration rallies last month, saying the tone was “unfortunate” and sometimes “hateful” but there were also good people who had turned up to demonstrate their views.
In the background is also a debate in the United States over migration, where President Donald Trump has decried “the failed experiment of open borders” and the administration has imposed $US100,000 ($151,000) fees on skilled worker visas.
Libs ‘naked’ without policy platform, says MP
Mr Hastie has been public about his desire to be Liberal leader, and last week threatened to resign from Sussan Ley’s frontbench if the party decided on a policy to keep net zero.
The sweeping review of Coalition policy after its massive election loss has several landmines along its path for Ms Ley, and net zero poses the greatest test of her leadership.
Liberals say they are now doing the slow work that should have been done last term to settle its direction — and while former leader Peter Dutton kept the party together, underlying issues did not get addressed.
But there is also a growing impatience within corners of the party of being left without a policy platform to turn the attention away from the opposition and back onto government.
Speaking on Sky News, Liberal MP Tony Pasin said it was a point of tension in the party.
“I’ve expressed this frustration internally, and apologies for the image this might throw up into people’s minds, but I told senior colleagues effectively you are throwing me out into the community naked, with nothing to say or do or talk about,” he said.
“A naked Tony Pasin in the community is not what we want.”
Mr Pasin added that the lack of policy was leading to infighting.
“I knew we would get to this point where people were expressing opinions like Andrew did via this Facebook post … all of a sudden there is vicious backgrounding going on. I can’t understand why, perhaps Andrew intimidates some of these types, because he is a natural-born leader.”
In his same social media post on migration, Mr Hastie wrote that if the Coalition did not act on population levels, it could expect anger and frustration.
“We might even die as a political movement,” he wrote.
“So be it.”
