{"id":631355,"date":"2026-04-26T04:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631355\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T04:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:48:08","slug":"taylor-says-higher-risk-of-bad-people-coming-from-bad-countries-and-that-welcome-to-country-ceremonies-overused-australian-immigration-and-asylum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631355\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor says higher risk of \u2018bad people coming from bad countries\u2019 and that welcome to country ceremonies \u2018overused\u2019 | Australian immigration and asylum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has said \u201cthere is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries\u201d, doubling down on his immigration policy<\/a> and refusing to call out Pauline Hanson\u2019s hardline stance.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the ABC\u2019s Insiders program on Sunday, Taylor said Indigenous welcome to country ceremonies were overused, after booing incidents at some of Saturday\u2019s Anzac Day dawn services. He also defended preferencing One Nation<\/a> above the independent community candidate, Michelle Milthorpe, in the upcoming Farrer byelection, arguing the teals \u201cvote with the Greens\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since being elected the Liberal leader, Taylor has singled out migrants from countries \u201cruled by fundamentalists, extremists and dictators\u201d as being less likely to \u201csubscribe\u201d to liberal democratic values.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, when asked whether migrants from China or Vietnam were less likely to fit in than migrants from Britain, he went further, specifically labelling some nations as \u201cbad countries\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany good people come from bad countries. Some of the great Australians have come from countries that were bad countries at the time,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor pointed to Iran as a \u201cbad country\u201d, but would not directly name any others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have bad countries around the world. I mean, to claim that Iran is a good country right now, seriously, and the government itself has put legislation in place to make it harder for people to come from Iran. We have seen terrible acts of atrocity coming from Gaza,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we know they\u2019re in the Middle East and elsewhere, that have committed great atrocities on their own populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia has a non discriminatory migration system, meaning people from specific countries are not blocked from applying for entry. Taylor said his party\u2019s policy is in line with that, saying it would discriminate based on people who do not accept Australia\u2019s \u201ccore values\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Labor government last month banned close to 7,000 Iranian nationals with visitor visas from travelling to Australia for six months under new legislation, over concerns visitors may not be able to return to Iran.<\/p>\n

Taylor also refused to call out Hanson\u2019s language on migration, and said he agreed with her on some issues. Hanson will speak at an anti-immigration rally outside parliament house on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some things we might agree on and I am sure there are things we don\u2019t agree on,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Hanson has called for all visas to be capped at 130,000 per year, while claiming credit<\/a> for the Liberal party\u2019s more hardline stance on the issue.<\/p>\n

Taylor defended preferencing One Nation ahead of the community independent candidate in Sussan Ley\u2019s former seat of Farrer, calling it the \u201cleast worst option\u201d. The Liberals will preference the Nationals\u2019 Brad Robertson second, ahead of the One Nation candidate, David Farley, in fourth position and Milthorpe in ninth, according to a mock how-to-vote card published on candidate Raissa Butkowski<\/a>\u2019s campaign website.<\/p>\n

Milthorpe and Farley are seen as the frontrunners in the byelection, meaning the flow of preferences could be crucial in the final outcome.<\/p>\n

Ley represented the seat of Farrer for 25 years. Previously the seat was held by the Nationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou choose the least worst option in preferencing and the least worst option is the National Party for the Liberal Party,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a group of teals in this parliament, that are trashing our energy system, are ready and have been trashing access to water and the strength of the our agricultural communities and we simply cannot endorse that \u2026 They vote with the Greens majority of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milthorpe has told Guardian Australia she is not a \u201cteal\u201d<\/a>, though has received some support from Climate 200.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Taylor also condemned the booing of Indigenous acknowledgement of country at Anzac Day events on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Booing was heard during the acknowledgement of country at dawn services in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. One man was arrested by police during the service at Martin Place.<\/p>\n

Taylor called it \u201cabsolutely inappropriate and un-Australian\u201d but said he believed welcome to country ceremonies were \u201coverused\u201d. A welcome to country and acknowledgement of country are different<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that at times, often actually, I think it is overused and as a result they are devalued,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI would like to see them used less and therefore not devalued as I think they have been over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, said during the 2025 election campaign that welcome to country ceremonies were \u201coverdone<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has said \u201cthere is a higher risk that some bad people come from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-631355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}