Immigration: public opinion and opinions about opinion

As Murray Goot points out in this issue, opposition to current rates of immigration eased between 1996 and 1999. Reasons for the change may include: steady numbers in the official program, the shift to skills, lower unemployment, and a diminution in public rhetoric about multiculturalism. It is, however, surprising that Goot should believe the changes he reports. In the past, when polls and surveys have shown higher levels of opposition to immigration, he has argued that they should be discounted. Goot also continues an assault on Tim Flannery launched earlier this year in The Bulletin. Flannery pointed to a conspiracy among politicians in the 1980s and early 1990s to use bipartisanship to bypass the voters’ preferences on immigration. Evidence for this manoeuvre is well established. Despite the softening of opposition to immigration there is no electoral support for a larger intake.