Stricter checks are needed to ensure “bad people” from “bad countries” do not come to Australia, the opposition leader says.
But Angus Taylor has refused to clarify which countries should be considered bad when pressed on the comments, which follow the release of the first stage of the coalition’s immigration policy earlier in April.
The Liberal Party leader said immigrants who did not come from like-minded nations had made Australia better, but there needed to be a more stringent look at the values of migrants from certain countries.
Angus Taylor won’t say how many people would be impacted by the coalition’s migration policy. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS)
In his speech announcing the policy in mid-April, Mr Taylor said immigration screening should be based on beliefs, adding that people who came from liberal democracies were more likely to adopt Australian values.
“Let’s be clear, some of the great Australians have come from countries that were bad countries at the time,” he told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
“There is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries and so what we have to do is we have to screen not based on country of origin, not based on race, but based on values.”
Asked which countries were bad, Mr Taylor would only mention Iran by name, refusing to say whether he considered nations such as the communist party-run China as part of the same group.
“The government itself has put legislation in place to make it harder for people to come from Iran,” he said.
Mr Taylor’s comments come as the coalition faces a multi-candidate showdown in the Farrer by-election on May 9.
Voting in the regional NSW electorate, triggered by the resignation of former opposition leader Sussan Ley, is shaping as a contest between One Nation and independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe.
The coalition has held the seat since it was established, but a recent poll indicates  One Nation’s candidate is the frontrunner to win the resurgent anti-immigration party’s first lower-house seat.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation wants Australia’s annual migrant intake capped at 130,000 per year. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)
Party leader Pauline Hanson will address an anti-migration rally in Canberra on Sunday.
One Nation has been calling for Australia’s annual migrant intake to be capped at 130,000 per year, down from net overseas migration of more than 300,000 people in the 2024/25 financial year.
Asked if that target was the right one, Mr Taylor said current levels were too high and the figure needed to be “sustainable”.
“It has to be in line with the housing infrastructure and services we have in this country,” he said.
“The numbers are too high, just as the standards have been too low.”