Hanson’s rise is fed by sharpening attitudes on migration, prompting Ley to seek advice from Howard, according to sources and MPs familiar with the pair’s interactions who described them on the condition of anonymity.
Like Howard did when Hanson burst onto the scene in the late 1990s, Ley intends to make a tough-on-borders approach core to her message over summer, at the same time as pushing back on Hanson’s racialised tone.
Senior MPs said they hoped they could claw back about half the voters who have drifted to Hanson this term by campaigning on migration and against net zero. Though the strategy risks blowing up if Foreign Minister Penny Wong is proved correct, after on Sunday warning the Coalition that “you can’t be more Pauline than Pauline”.
Asked on Monday how she would make the case to lower immigration levels without isolating or offending groups of voters, Ley said she would do so “by always reminding our wonderful migrant communities of the value that they add to this country”.
“I have my own migrant story. I deeply appreciate communities and individuals who’ve made the choice to come to Australia, to build their homes, to build their families, to build their future, to work hard, to take risks and to give back,” she said on Nine’s Today show.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull blasted the party he once led on ABC Monday Afternoon, saying “they’re out of touch with reality. They’re out of touch with the bulk of the electorate, and there’s certainly no way to win in government”.
He added that he felt sorry for Ley, saying “she’s in a fish tank consisting of goldfish that have no memory, that forget everything that they’ve done the last time around”.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on Monday welcomed the decision, saying that it was “time for the Liberals to stop pandering to sectional interests like the elite metropolitan universities and big business lobbies” in a social media post.
She said this should involve making significant cuts to certain parts of the migration program, even if this required a temporary freeze on certain visa classes.
Hastie last Friday said immigration “will be the next debate”.
Kovacic warned against a migration policy that was too harsh on new arrivals, telling this masthead that “Skilled and balanced migration is vital to our economy, but so too is remembering that many of today’s most successful Australians began as workers, refugees, or families starting from nothing”.
Ley’s big challenge in this area will be avoiding alienating voters from multicultural and migrant backgrounds, given that Price and Hastie have both offended diaspora groups in recent months.
Net migration to Australia soared after borders reopened following the pandemic, and while immigration levels have come down substantially, they remain above pre-pandemic levels.
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Repeated polls show that voters have growing concerns about the pace of immigration to Australia, but the Coalition failed to capitalise on the issue during the May election despite Peter Dutton’s promise to bring net migration down by 100,000 people a year more than Labor.
Ley on Monday said her immigration spokesman, Paul Scarr, and home affairs spokesman, Jonno Duniam, were working on a policy to deliver lower migration, but they had not yet worked through the details of which visa classes or migration streams ought to be cut.
“Within the different streams of migration to this country, we have working holidaymakers, we have skilled visas, we have a humanitarian intake, and we have a family reunion intake, and there’s a range of different visas for different purposes,” she said.
“We’ll work through the details of the different streams.”
Two MPs backing Hastie as the next party leader, who asked not to be named, said the former soldier was not planning to challenge Ley in the final sitting week of the year. He is about to undergo shoulder surgery for a ju-jitsu injury.
One of those two MPs said: “Andrew is interested in it, of course, but he’s not ready yet. We need a programme too, a plan that we can talk about”.
Frontbencher Angus Taylor is also a leadership rival, but there is no consensus in the Right about which candidate should be the person to take over from Ley.
