23 Feb 2026
Published on Substack
Speech notes from the address to the Advance Australia Conference
E&OE
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In my recent book, I declare that Australia is best described as one indissoluble federal Commonwealth under the Crown, with an indigenous heritage, a British foundation, and an immigrant character – and that’s because modern Australia was built by pioneers from the British Isles and strengthened by subsequent waves of migration.
But the fact that settlement and migration has produced modern Australia, doesn’t mean that we should take everyone from anywhere, all the time. That’s why my government stopped the boats, because a country that loses control of its borders is at risk of succumbing to peaceful invasion.
Yet while illegal migration to Australia has been under control since 2013, that’s far from true of legal migration. In the first three years of the Albanese government, legal migration was at an all time record, averaging some 400,000 a year; that’s a city the size of Canberra, every year.
And Net Overseas Migration, that’s the numbers coming for more than 12 months less the numbers leaving, is not being run by the elected and accountable government. It’s largely determined by language schools and universities selling work rights and residency rather than education; and by businesses that prefer foreign workers to paying and training locals for the jobs Australians won’t do.
And the numbers are huge. About 2.5 million people, or about 10 per cent of our total population, are temporary residents. There’s nearly a million people on student visas. There’s over half a million on temporary work visas. And there’s well over 100,000 on bridging visas, appealing against deportation.
Now, I’m not saying they’re not making a contribution to Australia. Of course they are. They’re carers, waiters, cleaners, drivers, and pickers. But is that really what’s best for our country: an economy dependent on temporary residents, and a society where a significant minority have made no formal commitment to Australia?
Especially when every person coming here for more than a few months needs something to do, somewhere to live, and a way to get about. At current numbers, that means downward pressure on wages, upward pressure on housing costs, and severe strain on infrastructure.
Immigration, like energy, is the economy. If it’s well targeted to genuine skills, it makes us stronger as a nation. If not, the overall economy might grow, but wealth per person actually declines.
But unlike energy, immigration is our society too. If immigrants share our values, and want to join Team Australia, our country grows stronger. But if they just want to live in Hotel Australia and take advantage of the facilities, our country becomes more fragmented and more divided.
For many years, migrants to Australia were expected to integrate from day one and to assimilate as soon as possible. But lately, under the doctrine of multiculturalism, migrants have been encouraged to keep their culture. Indeed, the old view, that migrants should be grateful for gaining a better life in Australia, has become: Australians should be grateful that migrants have given us a more diverse society.
In this respect, it’s worth noting that, this week, the Prime Minister issued a statement welcoming the start of Ramadan; but not one for the start of Lent. These days, official Australia celebrates every culture but our own.
What’s been forgotten is that migrants have chosen to come here. They choose Australia because they like what they see, our Anglo Celtic core culture, the world’s most welcoming; and our Judaeo Christian ethos, the world’s most universal.
Migrants don’t come here to change us, they come here to join us; yet in sufficient numbers, change us they do. Even though we do migrants, no favours; nor ourselves any favours, if we allow our country to change, to be more like the countries migrants left.
It’s the right, indeed it’s the duty, of each country, to keep its character and its culture; not preserved in aspic forever, to be sure, but change should be evolutionary and respectful, building on a country’s strengths.
For years now, many Australians have worried that our country is changing too fast and not always for the better. This disquiet, that had been surging in response to obvious Jew hatred – graffiti, vandalism, fire bombings, and hate marches – has only hardened and intensified since the Bondi massacre.
Two people – the son born here, and the dad here for almost 3 decades without ever becoming a citizen – thought so little of our traditional commitment to freedom of religion and to the sanctity of human life, that they turned a Hanukkah celebration into a shooting gallery. Inspired, the police say, and the evidence suggests, by Islamic State.
Plainly, multiculturalism has failed, and diversity is not our strength, when two individuals have so rejected our national ideals. The ideals reflected in the citizenship oath, that all new Australians are required to take, pledging allegiance “to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.”
Multiculturalism has indeed failed and diversity is not our strength, when numerous Muslim leaders seem less interested in condemning that atrocity, the worst ever terrorist attack on our soil, than in chiding the public about the dangers of Islamophobia – even though there are some parts of Islamic thought that are hardly compatible with life in a liberal democracy.
The rot was obvious as early as October 8, 2023, when Islamist leaders celebrated the October 7 atrocity as a “day of victory”; and it was confirmed on October 9, 2023, when an ugly mob marched on the Opera House, screaming “f—k the Jews,” and what sounded very much like “gas the Jews.”
Followed by weekly hate marches in our major cities, demanding “death to the IDF,” and “globalise the intifada”. During the recent visit of the president of Israel, we even heard “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada” indicating that it’s not just Israel, but Australia too, that’s rejected by those taking to the streets.
Prime Minister Albanese is right to declare that newcomers should leave their hatreds in the customs hall. But as things stand, not everyone does; and there’s no sign that will change under the current government.
I won’t pose the question of whether there are any good Muslims in Australia; of course there are. One might equally ask: are there any good Catholics, given that none of us are as good as we should be!
If the Bondi gunmen represented the worst of Islam: the “death to the infidels” mindset; on the very same day, Ahmed al Ahmed represented the best of Islam: protecting people in danger, because all life is blessed by God.
People of all faiths and races should be welcome in Australia, provided they accept our democratic beliefs and respect our rights and liberties. That would include those Muslims who see all men and women as their brothers and sisters; but how is commitment to a caliphate or to Sharia law compatible with liberal pluralist democracy; likewise how could supporters of a leading role for the communist party take our citizenship oath in good conscience?
The Bondi Massacre should be the final wake up call that we have needed in order to celebrate diversity less and unity more; and to resolve to keep Australia Australian.
The Prime Minister says that we have to lower the temperature of our public discourse. So let’s stop adding to the tensions; in particular, by scaling immigration right back, at least until infrastructure and social cohesion can catch up.
That means weaning language schools and universities off overseas students as their business model. It means weaning business off importing foreign workers rather than training and paying locals. It means a welfare system without the something-for-nothing mindset; one that insists that all younger people, at least those without major disabilities, will work; preferably for a wage, but otherwise for their dole.
But it doesn’t just mean much lower numbers, it also means a much greater stress on Australian values, with tougher citizenship test, background checks, security vetting, plus a longer probationary period before permanent residency becomes citizenship.
Protecting Australia means not giving visas to people whose countries won’t accept them back. It means generally not allowing people to change their visa status onshore. It means making it clear that the refugee convention does not apply, in this country, to people who have already passed through one or more safe countries before claiming asylum.
More generally, keeping Australia Australian means an immigration system based not on notional skills, but on actual job offers; at above market wages, and preferably with a foreign worker tax too, so employers will not be tempted to substitute overseas for local workers.
We need to remember that the best form of integration and the clearest sign of making a contribution to Australia is through working and paying tax from day one.
Because today’s migration program shapes tomorrow’s Australia, we rightly want migration that leaves tomorrow’s Australia a recognisable descendant of today’s.
It’s wonderful when people, who are clearly not of Anglo Celtic background, celebrate some great achievement for our country in a strong Australian accent; because that shows the gravitational pull, the powerful force field, exerted by the Australian way of life at its best.
That’s what’s made us; that’s what’s made us attractive to others; and that’s what we must preserve forever.
