Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has tapped former prime minister John Howard for advice on countering Pauline Hanson’s surging populist party as Ley scrambles to tighten her tenuous grip on the leadership by exploiting anxiety over the rate of migration.

A defiant Ley has ordered her shadow ministers to fast track a new migration policy as conservative Liberals and the Nationals , fresh from a victory dictating the 2050 net zero target, opened up a new internal debate on population.

To be released after parliament rises for the year, the plan is expected to identify migration streams, other than international students, that the opposition would cut.

The opposition leader blitzed morning radio and TV with net zero interviews on Monday as speculation about Moderate MPs shifting support to

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