News that the Coalition is set to cut immigrant numbers has been met with the usual howls of outrage from race baiters eager to characterise reasonable debate about population, migration and social cohesion as “hate speech”.
The Morrison Government is expected to cap Australia’s annual intake of permanent residents at 160,000, a drop from the previous ceiling of 190,000. That doesn’t include temporary residents with hundreds of thousands more coming to Australia to study or work under temporary visas.
The policy pivot shows the Coalition has been listening to the electorate, with a number of polls in recent years revealing the majority of Australians want a cut to migration levels and population growth.
Australia has among the highest population growth rates in the OECD, more than double that of the US and UK, with the bulk of that growth coming from overseas migration. The new figure will still see an above average growth rate but one that is lower than the levels we’ve experienced in the past decade.
However, cultural warriors of the Left are using the Christchurch massacre to paint the cut as pandering to racists.
They want to impose ever greater restrictions on free speech, including, it seems, censoring debate on population policy.
Former Labor staffer and Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane was among those who lashed out at the expected policy announcement.
“There was an opening this week to reset on racism and white supremacy,” he tweeted. “There could have been funding for a national anti-racism campaign, strengthening of hate speech laws, a concerted No to race politics. Instead: a pivot to an immigration cut. Be on guard against dog-whistles.”
Read the article by Rita Panahi in the Herald Sun.