Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan publicly broke with opposition leader Angus Taylor over the Coalition's immigration policy, saying he held "deep concerns" that the policy would divide the nation.

The split followed remarks by Taylor the previous week, when he said the nation should heavily restrict immigration and linked migration rates to an ongoing shortage of housing. McLachlan said in a public statement that the Coalition's approach risked creating tiers within Australian society based on entitlements.

"If you're both contributing to the wealth of the nation and one is entitled to certain entitlements, you could have almost a form of a strata-ing of our society. And I'm not sure that's the Australian way," McLachlan said.

McLachlan also took issue with the language used by his colleagues in the debate over migration and its connection to economic conditions. "I don't think our rhetoric meets the needs of the broader community. I think our rhetoric used alienates migrant communities. But we cannot continue to blame migrants for the problems of our economy," he said.