2026-07-24
Labor LEAPS TO THE RIGHT AGAIN ON MIGRATION
By Senator Mehreen Faruqi
When I arrived in Australia with my husband and our one-year-old son in 1992, we had two suitcases and each other. Like millions of migrants before and since, we worked, raised a family, found community and made this country our home.
Stories like my family’s are so often missing from our political debate about migration.
Instead, migrants are spoken about as numbers to be managed or problems to be solved. And rather than challenge the fear and division being pushed by One Nation and the far right, Labor is increasingly singing from their songsheet.
That doesn't neutralise One Nation. It validates them.
Labor’s latest migration changes are a stark example. Under a dishonest guise of tackling housing pressures, they have announced new visa rules, including preventing most new international students from bringing their immediate family members with them to Australia while they study here. Forcing people to choose between their study and their families is a cruel choice.
For decades, governments have cut university funding, making them dependent on the enormous fees international students are slugged with. Labor welcomed their money and contributions to our campuses, workplaces and communities.
But now they would rather punish people with the least power than confront those with the most. By scapegoating international students and blaming migrants for a housing crisis they did not cause, Labor are attempting One Nation’s favourite way of distracting people while billionaire political donors hoard obscene wealth, corporations gouge people at the check out and big property investors profit from a housing crisis.
Forcing people to choose between studying in Australia and living with their families is not a serious answer to housing unaffordability.
We are capable of something better and more human.
A fair migration system would process visas properly and promptly instead of leaving people in limbo for years. It would adequately fund services so applications can be dealt with fairly and efficiently. It would recognise that people on temporary visas are real people that are entitled to build their lives and raise their families, not an administrative problem.
And we need to confront the racism normalised by ‘political debate’ that scapegoats migrant communities.
Racism cannot be dealt with through hollow slogans about “social cohesion” while governments practise the very politics that fuel division.
We already have a roadmap for doing better. The Australian Human Rights Commission’s National Anti-Racism Framework contains 63 recommendations across education, workplaces, health, justice, law, media and government.
It is a practical, substantial roadmap for tackling racism across the board, grounded in truth-telling and justice for First Nations people. Unfortunately, nearly two years after the Framework’s launch, the Government is yet to respond.
We can have a migration system that is fair and functional, one which centres people rather than dehumanising them. We can invest in housing, universities and public services and hold to account the successive governments whose policies have led to these systems failing.
We can choose hope over hate and embrace a politics that brings people together instead of rewarding those who seek to tear us apart.
Labor has made it clear where they stand. We need to grow our movement and show that the Greens are the only voice in politics who will put people first.