Taylor reaches for the migration dog whistle while the actual system rots

Guardian Australia · Alan Gamlen · Friday 15 May 2026

Taylor reaches for the migration dog whistle while the actual system rots

Angus Taylor's tough talk on migration ducks the real question — what to do with the temporary migrants already here, stuck in limbo, propping up the economy nobody wants to admit they're propping up.

Taylor's discovered migrants make a handy piñata when the polling's flat. The system's broken because we've built a permanent underclass on temporary visas and called it a labour market. Menzies ran a migration program that built a country. This mob can't tell the difference between a policy and a press release from the shadow cabinet's WhatsApp group.

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