You broke it, you fix it. By Tom Dusevic in The Australian.

Australians want fewer migrants. The political class has absorbed the message but, as yet, has not faced up to the barbarous trade-offs to achieve that without causing an economic calamity. …

In December that year, O’Neil released Labor’s migration strategy … According to those inside the rescue job, Albanese had demanded: get the numbers down and stop talking about migration. After all, just before the strategy was announced, NOM had hit an all-time high 556,000 and Labor was being hammered by the Coalition for running a “Big Australia policy by stealth”. …

Given the quick descent into toxic politics, scant expertise about the system, and the government’s refusal to explain its migration story, there has been little serious discussion beyond numbers. … More of Labor’s bewildering selective mutism and delay will only imperil social cohesion. …

Henry Sherrell and Lachlan Vass … warn. “The days of quiet bipartisanship are gone.” …

“The immigration system is complex and the trade-offs are sharp. The social, economic, and political risks of change are genuine but pale in comparison to the stakes for our society.”

It’s the biggest issue, even slightly bigger than the economy, and it’s not going away. It is existential. It can no longer be hidden by the ruling class, who must now explain what on Earth they were thinking.