Quote:SCOTT Morrison will today rebuke the Pauline Hanson brand of isolationism, including calls for cuts to Muslim immigration.
The Treasurer will delivers the government’s strongest rejection yet of populist demands for cuts to immigration and to foreign investment and trade deals.
In what will be seen as a rebuff of policies preached by One Nation and the hard right of the Coalition, Mr Morrison will warn of the “great danger” of those proposed cuts.
He will acknowledge “genuine anxiety” among Australians during a speech prepared for the Lowy Institute in Sydney today. But warns against retreating under the policy bedclothes.
“It can be politically popular and rewarding to simply endorse these policy sentiments. However, there is great danger in following this path,” the Treasurer will say in the speech.
“Investment, trade and immigration bans not only fail to address the cause of concerns that Australians have, but worse, they would cut Australians off from the primary sources of their prosperity for over two centuries.
“Australia cannot afford to adopt the ‘doona economics’ approach that suggests we can pull the doona over our head and insulate ourselves from the economic changes that are occurring globally and domestically.”
Mr Morrison also acknowledged that some Australians felt left out of 25 years of growth.
“They are asking practical questions like: Why are my wages not increasing like they were before? Why can’t I get the extra hours I was getting before?” he says in the speech.
“These sentiments are real and they are looking for something to explain it.”
He links the disquiet to opinion poll findings that almost half of Australians back bans on Muslim immigration, with similar response to foreign investment and free-trade agreements.
“Foreign investment, trade and an immigration program that is focused on bringing people to Australia who make a contribution rather than take one, creates jobs, boosts wages, drives growth, increases our living standards and always has,” Mr Morrison says.
“Ensuring that foreign investment, trade and immigration policies continue to serve our national interest is a key component of the Turnbull Government’s national economic plan for jobs and growth.”
He says the government has a national plan for jobs and growth, that will deal with some of the anxieties.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/there-is-great-danger-in-following-t...I started to have high hopes for Morrison at one stage but he is just another numpty.
Both major parties just continually sweep opinions they do not like under the rug.
They are doing themselves a disservice as the more they vilify Pauline the more votes she will get in the next election.
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