Politics With Michelle Grattan: Abul Rizvi On How Silence And Stalling Stoke Anti-Migrant Fears

Immigration has once again become a hot button issue, from weekend protests featuring neo-Nazis to a new A$408 million deal with Nauru to accept former immigration detainees Australia cannot legally deport back to their own countries.

The federal government has also just belatedly announced the permanent migration figure for this financial year. At 185,000 , it's unchanged from the previous year.

On this podcast we're joined by Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration under the Howard government turned media commentator. He says it was“very, very unusual” that it took the Albanese government so long to announce the latest migration figures.

But Rizvi says both major political parties should take responsibility for fuelling public concerns about immigration, after two decades of stalling on hard decisions and avoiding difficult conversations.

Rizvi says successive federal governments have failed to properly manage or explain how they're dealing with migrant numbers. That's having unintended consequences, both for families and businesses trying to bring workers or loved ones to Australia.

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