Australia has always relied on high levels of immigration to, among other things, fuel its economic growth. At the same time, immigrants have been an easy scapegoat to blame for the woes of the nation — especially during times of crisis.

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) has a dishonorable history in this context, with figures in the party routinely borrowing from the Right’s dog-whistle tactics and calling for nativist solutions. The latest instance comes from the ALP’s Kristina Keneally, the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. In an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald this week, she argued that the pandemic and its lockdown provide the ideal opportunity to put a curb on immigration. “Do we want migrants to return to Australia in the same numbers and in the same composition as before the crisis?” she asks. The answer, she tells us, “should be no.”

Keneally’s attack is specifically targeted at temporary migrants, or guest workers, who she accuses both of driving down wages and of depriving Australians of their rightful “fair go and a first go” at jobs. She even admiringly cites Boris Johnson’s restrictions to low-skilled migration in the United Kingdom, as a model for what Australia could achieve with the right intent.