At a forum in Western Sydney on Friday marking a campaign crossover point for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his rival Peter Dutton — a challenge was put to the leaders.
The Daily Telegraph, which was hosting the event, asked them: What was their one-word response to the word migration?
Albanese answered “balanced".
Dutton responded, "balanced and great for our country".
The Opposition leader was asked to condense that to one word.
"We're net-beneficiaries," he said.
After years of relentlessly focusing on the downsides of immigration, the answer illustrates a shift in Dutton's tone, as he tries to win over voters in the diaspora community, some of whom turned away from the Coalition at the last election.
Peter Dutton at a forum held at the Blacktown Workers Club in north west Sydney on Friday. Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE
Dining on dumplings
On his first full day of the election, Dutton dined on dumplings and fried rice in a suburban Chinese restaurant, while promising the local Brisbane community $225,000 in funding for a museum to honour the history of Chinese Australians in the state.
It was a clear signal that the Opposition leader would be building a multicultural message into his campaign.
Peter Dutton visited a Chinese restaurant in Brisbane for yum cha. Source: Supplied
"In the top 15 seats by Chinese ancestry, the swing against the party (on a two-party-preferred basis) was 6.6 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent in other seats," said authors of the review, former Liberal party director Brian Loughnane and prominent frontbench Senator Jane Hume.
"There are more than 1.2 million people of Chinese heritage living in Australia today. Rebuilding the party’s relationship with the Chinese community must be a priority during this term of parliament."
Key policy remains a concern
As the yum cha plates were being cleared away, the founder of the museum Peter Low told SBS World News that Dutton's message was resonating with the community.
This is in contrast to the alienation many felt when former Liberal leader Scott Morrison was prime minister, and COVID-19 pandemic rhetoric from the Liberal Party was considered "anti-Chinese".
But Mr Low was not willing to throw his support behind one of the Coalition’s key policies, the plan to cut permanent migration.
In his budget reply speech last month, Dutton doubled down on his previously announced plan to cut permanent migration by a quarter, reducing it to 140,000 places a year.
The Coalition argues that a post-pandemic migration surge has put too much pressure on services and contributed to a lack of available housing stock for renters and buyers.
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But Low sees it differently.
“To me the 25 per cent cut in migration is very bad for Australia.
"Admittedly there is a housing crisis, but the housing crisis can be solved quite easily by allowing people to build more houses."
Voters doing it tough
The Coalition knows its path to victory in this election is an uphill battle and it would need to claw back at least 19 seats for outright majority.
Many of the target seats are marginal electorates in suburbs on the fringes of major cities — like the electorate of McKewen in Melbourne where Dutton sat with the Xavier family this week watching as they piled their bills on the table and explained how hard it was to afford a decent standard of living.
Peter Dutton visits Fulbert Xavier, Priya Xavier and their son, Aidan Xavier in Donnybrook, north of Melbourne on Wednesday. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
The Liberal Party’s policy to is designed to appeal to suburban fringe voters and tap into concerns about the high cost of commuting to work and school.
Dutton's unexpected mosque visit
That’s also a message directed at the hundreds of thousands of Australians in those areas who are practising Muslims and have been celebrating the end of Ramadan — a period of fasting — with the Eid festival.
Historically, the diverse voting bloc has predominantly supported Labor, however, community anger over the government's response to Israel's war in Gaza appears to be fracturing its base.
This year, many mosques made it clear that politicians were not welcome. Some members of parliament still went to prayer events and opposition frontbencher Jason Wood was met with a deeply hostile reception at a mosque in Melbourne, all recorded and posted on social media.
In the wake of the , the Coalition has been much more focused on antisemitism and supporting the Jewish community.
Last year Dutton also raised eyebrows when he described the fledgling political movement's decision to run candidates in some western Sydney seats as a “disaster”.
Given those dynamics, it would be an uphill battle for the Coalition to gain ground in electorates with large Muslim populations, which is why it was an unexpected turn of events when Dutton's bus pulled up at Al-Madinah mosque in the Western Sydney suburb of Leppington, and the Opposition leader was welcomed inside by the local Imam.
Several Arab Muslim leaders have privately pointed out to SBS that the mosque the Liberals chose to visit was a Pakistani-Indian place of worship with teachings in Urdu, considered more distant from the politics of the Middle East, therefore posing less risk of protest or hostility.
The Imam Sheikh Ahmad Hussain later said he wanted to welcome all politicians but that should not be interpreted as backing their policies.
"Many disagree with his ideas, but as a place of God — everyone is welcome," he said.
Peter Dutton visits the Al Madinah Mosque in Leppington last Sunday. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
In the press conference Dutton confirmed he would job held by Aftab Malik and keep the role in place "if it is making a difference".
"But I think there is a lot of frustration at the moment about what is being listened to, from what is being advised by the envoy, so I would have to take advice."
His office later confirmed the antisemitism envoy role held by Jillian Segal would continue without the need for the same scrutiny.
The mosque trip came directly after Dutton’s visit to an Assyrian Christian festival in Sydney, where he mingled with hundreds of people taking selfies and shaking his hand. In this community he is praised for his role as part of the former government that helped them reach Australia.
Peter Dutton at the Assyrian New Year celebrations held in Fairfield last Sunday. Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE
Details of migration cuts remain unclear
Immigration policy will continue to dominate the election campaign but the detail of exactly how the Opposition plans to drive down permanent migration has been left hanging, including which visa categories would be targeted.
Dutton has committed to providing more details before election day.
But while he continues to tie immigration to Australia's housing crisis — despite data suggesting the relationship between the two is complex — Dutton is also choosing his words carefully, so as not to ostracise the diaspora community in the process.
"There are many migrant families I've spoken to around the country who are desperately worried for their kids, they're second and third generation migrants, they've come to this country looking for opportunity, and their kids can't afford to buy a house.”
