Do we like them?

Do we like Tony Burke?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A solid record on the votes that matter to us, held back by a fact-checked slip and a messy, secretive-looking ISIS-returnees saga.

Tony Burke is a veteran Labor MP for Watson in Sydney's west, now Home Affairs Minister. They Vote For You has him attending 3276 of 3649 possible votes and never voting against his own party. He's very much a party man, which tells you most of what you need to know about how he operates.

Then there's the plain fact-check stain. On ABC in April 2025 Burke said a Muslim group had put the Trumpet of Patriots “above me as well”; AAP FactCheck found that false, because the group's card ranked him fifth and that party seventh. He told AAP he'd meant a different candidate's card. Separately, he left a prayer event on police advice after a video message threatened him, and Labor's Jason Clare said Burke wasn't scared. That's menace aimed at him, and it counts for nothing against him.

On the harm test he comes out clean. They Vote For You records him consistently voting for extending benefits to same-sex couples, against a same-sex marriage plebiscite, against celebrants refusing to marry same-sex couples, and for criminalising hate speech and hate symbols. His votes on transgender rights and protections are a split, so he's no flawless ally there. On Gaza, he consistently voted against the federal government calling for a ceasefire (2023-26), which different readers will take very differently. After Bondi he talked of “hate in their hearts and guns in their hands”.

The recent work is migration. In September he was due to detail Labor's plan to cut net overseas migration from about 300,000 a year to 245,000 and then 225,000, mostly by regulation after talks with the Coalition broke down. Business groups say the real problem is housing and skills, and the Opposition leader attacked the Prime Minister's reversal of refugee-intake cuts. Burke's pitch is that he wants it down but with a “generous humanitarian program”.

Put together, you get a competent Labor operator with a genuinely good record on people and the planet, and a record of occasionally being cagey. The ISIS file is a live judgment call where reasonable readers will disagree, and the false claim was a one-off. He isn't a hero, but he's a long way from the people who campaign against us.