For decades now, public discourse about refugees and immigrants has become increasingly fractured, ugly and untrue.
From John Howard’s “we will decide who comes to this country” mantra, to Kevin Rudd’s “if you come by boat you will never permanently live in Australia” in 2013, through to Tony Abbott’s “stop the boats” election victory that same year, it has been a prominent feature of Australia’s recent political landscape.
For the Coalition, it was about stopping so-called “illegals”.
