The Shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen, has delivered a speech in defence of openness in trade and immigration, and against nativist populism.

Addressing the Crescent Institute, Bowen said: “In the United States, Europe and recently in Australia, simple solutions are being proposed to solve complex problems.”

Bowen said he wanted to make “the case for trade and immigration… for an outward looking, modern nation, at peace with itself and comfortable with the world around us.”

He said “the believers in a connected world” also need “to meet the concerns of those who are hurting” and who are tempted by “the chimera of a solution proposed by those who are speedily trying to raise the national drawbridge”. [Read more…]