With around 2 million migrants expected to move here under Labor, public opinion polls on immigration have swung dramatically to the right.
Newspoll data shows that 64% of Australians want fewer immigrants, including 39% who want a lot fewer.
Two-thirds want immigration paused until housing availability catches up.
And supporters are flocking to One Nation, citing immigration as their major concern.
While Australians have radically shifted their views on immigration, some Liberal holdouts have not – choosing instead to join Labor in tone-policing the immigration debate.
South Australian Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan told The Guardian that the use of the term mass migration was “technically inaccurate” and “extremely unhelpful”.
“Its use in this debate is irresponsible and inflammatory. Every member and senator has a duty to lead public opinion, not to merely reflect the divisive sentiments of the very few.”
On his X, he repeated his concern over “the repeated use of the term ‘mass migration’ in the national debate on immigration. It is inflammatory and irresponsible.”
To strengthen his argument, he quoted Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
“As [the Treasurer] noted, ‘we are now 17,000 people lower than the Treasury forecast for net overseas migration and 40% below the peak that we saw in that overseas migration following Covid.”
Shadow immigration minister Paul Scarr likewise shared Labor’s point of view on the issue, arguing multiple times that ‘mass immigration’ isn’t a useful term.
In an interview with ABC’s Patricia Karvelas, he joined Labor’s Jerome Laxale, who said he took offense to the term “mass migration.”
“I think mass migration, when we consider that term. You’re talking about huge movements of people from one geographical location to another,” Scarr said.
“I don’t think [the term] is correct.”
Senator Bragg likewise has tried to push back against those who say immigration was the primary cause of the housing crisis.
“The increased demand from Labor’s reckless migration programme has been damaging but it is not the major driver,” he said. “The major driver of the housing crisis is a collapse in housing supply.”
Strangely, some in the Liberal Party appear to speak out against those who speak out against mass immigration more than the issue of immigration itself.
It is stranger still when you consider that the Liberal Party is now polling at an existentially low 27%, while immigration is increasingly polling as the number one issue for Australians.
And it is stranger again, when, as pollsters have revealed, many of Australia’s largest migrant communities have little to no interest in voting for the Liberal Party in its current form anyway.
The question needs to be asked: Who are these statements even for?
A strong position on immigration is possibly the only route back into power for the Liberal Party.
You would think, then, that every bit of energy would go towards arguing that case, rather than siding with Labor in tone-policing the issue.
And questionable tactics of it aside, the term ‘mass immigration’ is an undeniable reality.
Beyond just the huge numbers that we see online (300,000, last I checked), it’s what Australians are witnessing in their day-to-day lives that matters.
Rapid demographic change in their towns and cities, astronomical house and rental prices, increased traffic and hospital wait times, cultural pressures, and crime – the list goes on.
It’s those lived experiences that have given the term ‘mass immigration’ its legitimacy and its potency.
Those who wish to argue for a more nuanced debate either refuse or are unable to accept the desperation many Australians feel.
There’s no time for nuance when you’re about to go homeless – Australians need leaders willing to talk straight on the issue.
Mass immigration as a term broadly reflects what many Australians feel is an excessive and out-of-control migration program.
It is a term that is used globally, including by our closest ally the United States, with Vice President JD Vance, who says that “mass immigration is the theft of the American Dream.”
Even Denmark’s left-leaning Prime Minister regularly uses the term mass migration, seeing it “as a threat to the daily life in Europe.”
Australia has 8.6 million migrants, making up 32% of the population.
Around 3 million migrants settled in Australia between 2000 and 2021.
By the end of their second term, the Albanese government will have settled roughly 2 million.
That is, to use Scarr’s own words, a huge movement of people from one geographical location to another.
That is mass migration.
With the Liberal Party in the dire position it is in, perhaps more time should be spent fighting for Australians against mass immigration, rather than fighting frivolous battles over words.
First published in SkyNews Australia 22 December 2025 as “Coalition Senator, Labor MP both rebuked term ‘mass migration’ in ridiculous exchange that shows why voters are fleeing the Liberals for One Nation” © Jordan Knight 2025. All Rights Reserved.
