South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has taken aim at both major parties for pandering to One Nation as he described a “political race to the bottom” on migration.
Speaking to the Sydney Institute last night, Malinauskas said labelling people who were anxious about immigration as racists was “just plain daft”, and said most of the concern surrounding immigration was about its perceived economic impacts.
The premier said it was the responsibility of those in power to make the economic case for a strong, balanced migration program without trying to appease the far-right.
“In my view, people on the far left who are understandably utterly horrified about the extraordinary rise of far-right politics in Australia and around the world would do well to engage in a moment of self-reflection,” Malinauskas told the institute.
“Maybe, just maybe, the intense self-righteousness, sanctimony, and piety that underpinned the ‘great awokening’ may have tilled the soil for the inevitable countercultural movement that has now found a home for itself in the far right.”
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