Anthony Albanese has declared the Labor Party has \u201clearned the lesson\u201d on the importance of border protection after years of bitter debates in a revealing interview on the ABC\u2019sKitchen Cabinet.<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese\u2019s mea culpa on immigration policy comes on the eve of this week\u2019s ALP conference and the continued rise of Pauline Hanson\u2019s One Nation in the polls.<\/p>\n
Over a decade ago, the ALP conference was the scene of a political civil war regarding boat turnbacks.<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese led the front bench rebellion against Bill Shorten\u2019s push to embrace the \u201cturn-back\u201d boat policy \u2013 and lost.<\/p>\n
He famously told the Left faction that the idea was a \u201cred line we cannot cross\u201d.<\/p>\n
But the Prime Minister offers a very different take eleven years on in a new episode of Annabel Crabb\u2019s Kitchen Cabinet program.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou learn, and you can change your position,\u2019\u2019 Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn border protection, for example, we said, that we would keep the mechanisms in place and indeed we\u2019ve expanded a range of them, because people feel like they have to be in control of their borders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to run a migration system that\u2019s respectful of the contribution that migrants make, it has to be orderly. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s the lesson that the British Labor government is dealing with at the moment. It\u2019s a lesson that the US Democrats should have learnt but didn\u2019t. And it\u2019s something that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crabb asked the Prime Minister a hypothetical: if he was sitting down with the 2001 version of himself, would he regard his current position on border protection as a \u201csellout\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have been having a disagreement,\u2019\u2019 Mr Albanese replied, \u201cNo question about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the other thing that we haven\u2019t done though is we\u2019re respectful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t used people like, during Children Overboard. You know, it was just an attempt to divide people by saying things that were not true.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we have engaged respectfully, we have an orderly migration program, a good refugee program. You won\u2019t hear from me a distinction between Australians and migrants, like we heard from Angus Taylor in his budget reply.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked to comment on the rise of anti-semitism and Islamophobia, Mr Albanese said that some of what currently passes for political debate was \u201cwild\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a range of factors, economic turbulence,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had the global financial crisis. Then we had Covid, a land war in Europe with Ukraine, now we\u2019ve got the Middle East conflict. It\u2019s been a whole series of disruption that I think has created a sense of frustration and, yes, anger in some.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then that\u2019s fuelled by what\u2019s happened with social media. With algorithms pushing people toward polarisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019ve said so many times, yeah, turn the temperature down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese\u2019s Kitchen Cabinet interview coincides with Pauline Hanson\u2019s insistence that she is not calling for a return to a White Australia policy.<\/p>\n
The controversy kicked off last week after British far right commentator Stephen Yaxley- Lennon, who goes by the name Tommy Robinson, asked Senator Hanson about Australia\u2019s immigration policies, and she mentioned the abolition of the White Australia policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow have you ended up with Pakistanis, Somalis, all of these African problems with violent Africans? How has that happened when you have such a strong immigration policy?\u2019\u2019 Robinson asked Ms Hanson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it started in 1973 with Gough Whitlam. So they opened up and got rid of the White Australia policy,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen they started bringing in the different migrants. We had a lot of people came out after the Second World War. So Italians, Germans, Polish, and these people, but they integrated into the system, and \u2026 a lot of them couldn\u2019t speak English, but they learnt to speak English. They had to go and work.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut these people who came in really assimilated. And \u2026 now, they\u2019re Aussies. They love the country. But over the decades, as the governments have changed and different people they\u2019ve brought in, and a lot of people come into Australia purely for the welfare system, or to get on our NDIS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Hanson later released a video accusing the \u201cleftist\u201d media of misinterpreting her remarks as an endorsement of the White Australia policy, arguing she was simply outlining the historical trajectory and wasn\u2019t backing a return of the policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot the case. Never ever have I advocated that. And I don\u2019t believe it, at all,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Sunrise, Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek insisted that what Ms Hanson was saying about the White Australia policy was clear.<\/p>\n
Asked if he supported \u201cmass deportations\u201d for illegal immigrants, One Nation\u2019s Barnaby Joyce said if people had no right to be in Australia, they should leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, Nat, literally everybody agrees with that. If you\u2019re here illegally, you should be deported, no questions asked,\u2019\u2019 Ms Plibersek responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cBarnaby was the deputy prime minister. There were people who were here illegally when he was deputy prime minister. What did he do about that then?\u201d<\/p>\n
The new season of Kitchen Cabinet starts Tuesday 21 July at 8:30pm.<\/p>\n