Mass Immigration is about More Migrant Slaves for Local Elites, By Paul Walker
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has just dropped what might be the most brutally honest — and controversially crude — defence of high migration levels you'll hear from any Australian politician in 2026. In a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) last week, he directly targeted One Nation voters pushing for sharp cuts to immigration, asking: "My message to One Nation voters is: who's going to feed you and bathe you and wipe your bum when you're 90, right? Because it ain't going to be your kids."
He doubled down when pressed on regret: "Not one iota, right? Not one iota."
The clip (widely shared, including in Sky News Australia's commentary calling it "unhinged") frames his point around demographic reality: Australia's population is aging fast, birth rates are low, and families increasingly can't (or won't) provide hands-on elderly care. Without migrants supposedly filling low-paid, physically demanding roles in aged care, construction, and other essential sectors, the system collapses, or so they say. He tied it to SA-specific needs — building 13,500 homes a year, boosting skilled migration by about 2,000 annually (plus families, totalling ~3,200 net inflow), and shifting workers to high-priority projects like the nuclear submarine program. Migrants, he argued, have historically done the "really hard jobs" locals avoid, and curtailing them would leave gaps no one else fills. The same old, tired story, long refuted.
The Backlash: From "Slave Underclass" to Stereotyping Migrants
The remarks exploded online and in media, drawing fire from across the spectrum:
One Nation and Right-wing critics blasted it as admitting migration policy creates a permanent low-wage underclass imported to do the dirty work Australians won't touch. Macrobusiness.com.au ran with the savage headline "South Australian premier demands migrant slaves to 'wipe bums'," framing it as a "population pyramid scheme based on human exploitation" — sourcing labour from poorer nations who'll accept lower standards, ensuring endless supply as earlier arrivals move up.
Migrant communities and progressives called it demeaning. Indian-origin Family First SA upper house candidate Deepa Mathew hit back hard: "I didn't come here to wipe bums." She accused Malinauskas of reducing migrants to a crude stereotype, ignoring their contributions as doctors, engineers, business owners, and professionals. "Migrants come to build futures... not to be demeaned."
Greens and others echoed concerns about exploitation, low pay in aged care (where conditions are already gruelling), and the racist undertones in assuming certain nationalities are "used to much lower living standards."
Even mainstream outlets like ABC News reported bipartisan criticism, with the comments seen as blunt to the point of offensive. Sky News host James Macpherson mocked the vision of elderly Aussies reliant on foreign "bum wipers" while their kids build submarines, calling it a bleak, out-of-touch pitch.
Critique: Honest Demographics or Exploitative Framing?
Malinauskas isn't wrong on the maths. SA (and Australia broadly) faces a care crisis: an aging boom, workforce shortages in aged care (low wages, burnout, high turnover), and declining family caregiving. Aged care relies heavily on migrants — many from India, Nepal, Philippines, and other developing nations — who often enter via student visas, temporary skilled pathways, or family streams. Without them, facilities close, waitlists grow, and vulnerable elderly suffer.
But the delivery? It's a masterclass in political malpractice. Framing migration as "who wipes your bum" reduces complex human beings to bodily functions, plays into stereotypes, and alienates the very workers the system needs. It ignores fixes like better wages/training to attract locals, investing in robotics/automation, or reforming aged care funding. Instead, it leans on volume migration as the default band-aid — a critique Macrobusiness.com.au and others level at the whole national model.
In SA context, with the March 21 state election looming, this is risky. Malinauskas is popular and polling strong, but One Nation is surging on immigration fears (echoing federal trends). By saying the quiet part loud, he might rally his base on economic pragmatism but hand ammo to opponents portraying Labor as pro-mass migration at any cost. Which it is; look at the old Anglo Saxon building pulled down under this regime.
Bottom line: The Premier's point about demographic necessity is valid, but packaging it as "migrant bum-wipers or bust" is crude, divisive, and risks dehumanising people who already do undervalued, essential work. If SA wants sustainable growth, debate the how — wages, training, integration — not just the who. Otherwise, this "wipe your bum" line becomes the soundbite that haunts him, and the sector, long after the election.
