By Kat Wong in Canberra

The opposition has been accused of fuelling violent, anti-immigration protests while Labor’s lack of transparency has been blamed for stoking angst towards migrants.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in rallies across Australia’s major cities on Sunday, calling on the federal government to pause or slow the pace of immigration.

The marches, which were attended by neo-Nazis, have been the subject of bipartisan condemnation.

But Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Wednesday took aim at the coalition, saying it had played a role in blaming migrants for long-standing issues.

“It’s an old Liberal tactic, we know it well … using migrants as a scapegoat for a housing crisis the Liberal Party presided over,” she told the Senate.

“The Liberals are so busy looking for someone to blame, they’ve forgotten that the majority of Australians rejected their divisive tactics at the last election.

“Australians know we are strongest as a nation when we stand together, when we build each other up, not tear each other down.”

But the way the federal government unveiled a new immigration cap on Tuesday showed how Labor had also inadvertently stirred up anxious Australians, according to former Immigration Department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi.

“The government is just not sufficiently transparent about what its long-term plans for immigration are,” he told AAP.

“The government has essentially just stopped explaining what it’s doing.”

It set the permanent migration program intake for 2025/26 at 185,000, the same as the previous financial year.

But the three-sentence government press release contained little detail about skilled or partner visas, making it impossible to tell what it would do about booming demand in those areas, Dr Rizvi said.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the latest immigration target was still too high, but she maintained the issue was not about migrants themselves.

“It’s about getting the balance right,” she told the Nine’s Today program.

As prominent neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell faced court accused of storming the Indigenous Camp Sovereignty on Sunday after the Melbourne rally, Senator Wong celebrated the nation’s multiculturalism.

“Neo-Nazis and anti-immigration rallies are not who we are. These are not Australian values,” she said.

“We are a nation that welcomes different races, different faiths, different views and we are united by a respect in each other’s humanity and for each other’s right to live in peace.

“Let us always choose unity, not division.”

Factually incorrect statements about growing migration numbers contributed to the anti-immigration sentiment, including promotional flyers for Sunday’s rallies that used false claims to fuel anti-Indian rhetoric.

Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria president Vasan Srinivasan said many protesters just needed to get to know his community.

“We are all here for one reason: a peaceful, happy life.”

Many within the Indian community are skilled migrants, arriving in Australia as doctors or with engineering qualifications.

One of the best represented occupations in Australia’s migration program were nurses, who were in high demand as the population aged and the health workforce buckled under high attrition, Dr Rizvi said.

Migrants also take on hard, less-skilled work many Australians don’t want to do, such as fruit picking and farm labour.

“We need to remember that the bulk of students and working holidaymakers can’t get the dole,” he said.

“If they don’t get a job, they don’t survive.”

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