I spent a day in Parliament House last week. It was the day Immigration Minister Tony Burke was to make his long-delayed speech to the National Press Club on migration, and that issue hung heavy in the air.

All over the building, the talk was of targets and trade-offs.

It has been a while since I spent a whole day in the shiny building built into the hill to symbolise the parliament serving the people, not being above them.

Beyond the bustling school groups and mildly interested tourists, there was a bad feeling in the place, like the political debate on migration was a train running out of control, and somehow our elected representatives were powerless to stop it.

I don’t say this to offer government and others any excuses: quite the opposite.

They have brought this ‘debate’ on themselves – again – and it is completely unnecessary.

I cannot understand how thinking adults, whose deeply multicultural electorates show no interest in demonising migrants, have gone down the rabbit hole once more.

It just doesn’t make sense.

Some key facts, as I see them.

Firstly, young, well-educated citizens are a good thing – economists and others all seem to agree on this. Having more of them is a strategic advantage. This week’s Intergenerational Report reminds us that we are short on youth and long on age. So, encouraging bright young people to come live here is a good idea.

Secondly, no matter what politicians tell you (and some media outlets parrot), migration is not what Australians keep bringing up when asked what worries them. Read Kos Samaras this week for the detailed breakdown. He asked, repeatedly, across a long timespan, and the answers stayed the same. The list of worries is long, but migration is just not on it.

And this makes sense, because most of us came from somewhere else originally (in fact, everyone apart from Indigenous people – the first inhabitants of the country). But, more recently, it is even more absurd to talk of multiculturalism as though it is somehow optional. With a diaspora pushing very close to 1 million, there are now more Australians of Indian origin than English. More than half of us were born overseas, or have a parent who was, and around 5.5 million of us speak a language other than English at home.

When Pauline Hanson talks about what Australians are sick of, or fear, or dislike, who exactly is she talking about? Who’s left in her bitter little camp?

It is not just Hanson that is the problem. One Nation feeds division and fear. Always has. The government and opposition should be bigger and better.

I know political decision-making draws on many elements, and reliable evidence is only one, but, even so, migration-blaming is a distortion of epic proportions. We are a nation of migrants, and a very successful one. That is something to celebrate.

It seems the only way to counter this is for us to stand up and say, “Enough.”

We at P&I will keep on arming you with facts to be able to do so.

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