Labor has announced a major overhaul of Australia’s migration system that would prevent international students from automatically bringing family members, reduce access to extended working holiday visas and make it more difficult for temporary migrants to stay by repeatedly changing visa types.
The reforms will also target students who switch courses to extend their stay, impose tighter conditions on visitor visas, crack down on questionable protection claims and strengthen enforcement against people who remain after their visas expire.
The revamped system will give priority to migrants with skills the government considers essential to Australia’s needs.
Visa applications from workers in critical fields—including healthcare, construction, education, law enforcement, defence, resources, agriculture, aquaculture and fishing—will be fast-tracked.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke outlined the measures at the National Press Club on Thursday, cautioning that an overly sharp reduction in migration could harm the economy.
‘The times that we’ve had massive reductions too far in immigration have coincided with the worst economic times in Australia’s history. We need to be careful with it, and I’m being careful with it.’
Mr Burke said the government wanted to establish a clearer divide between temporary and permanent migration pathways.
‘If you want to come on a temporary basis to Australia, apply for a temporary visa. If you want to come to Australia permanently, apply for a permanent visa. And if you no longer have a valid visa, you should leave Australia,’ he said.
As part of the crackdown on tourists using visitor visas to extend their stay, all visitor visas will include a ‘no further stay’ condition.
Anthony Albanese’s government has unveiled major migration reforms as Pauline Hanson’s popularity continues to rise.
In one of the most significant changes, international students and graduate visa holders will no longer automatically be permitted to bring family members to Australia.
‘For international students, we will no longer be allowing the attaching of family members for international students or for graduate visas,’ he said.
The new rules will not apply to partners or relatives who are already in Australia under an existing visa.
Working holiday-makers will also face stricter requirements if they want to remain in Australia for a second or third year.
Backpackers who complete the required regional work will no longer automatically qualify for another working holiday visa. Instead, eligible applicants will be selected through a ballot.
The number of second-year visas will be capped at 45,000, compared with about 57,000 people who qualified last year.
The cut will be much sharper for third-year visas, with just 5,000 places available, compared with about 31,000 people who qualified last year.
‘Not everybody will get through because we need to have some control and certainty of what those numbers are.’
Visitor visas will also be tightened to prevent people entering Australia as tourists and then switching to another visa while onshore.
At present, a visitor can apply for another visa after arriving in Australia and potentially remain on a bridging visa while that application is processed.
Burke said the practice had contributed to visa-hopping and made authorities more reluctant to approve some genuine visitor visa applications.
Under the new system, many visitor visas will carry a ‘No further stay’ condition, generally preventing holders from applying for another visa while they remain in Australia.
International students will also be prevented from repeatedly moving between courses at the same or lower qualification level in an attempt to extend their stay.
‘You can go up the qualification scale, but only up the qualification scale,’ he said.
‘So, at the end of a bachelor degree, if you want to then do a master’s, that’s up the scale, that’s ok.’
Burke suggested Australia was often retaining migrants without the skills the country needed, with the government set to give greater weight to skilled tradespeople
Burke said the government was targeting cases where students finish one course before enrolling in another, often cheaper or lower-level qualification primarily to remain in Australia and work.
‘One of the classic areas of Visa hopping is people finish a course, hop to the next course, hop to the next,’ he said.
He said some students were moving to questionable education providers that offered cheaper courses with minimal attendance requirements.
‘Study with me. It will cost you less. We’re not very demanding on whether you attend anything. And you’ll be able to go for your life and get out there and work.’
The government is also planning a crackdown on what Burke described as disingenuous protection claims lodged by temporary migrants who have exhausted other options for remaining in Australia.
He said some applicants were being encouraged to lodge asylum claims despite having little prospect of success because the appeal process could allow them to continue living and working in Australia for years.
‘Put one in anyway and you’ll be able to wait out the appeal system, wait out the court system, you might get up to nine years working in Australia.’
Migration agents who encourage clients to lodge bogus claims could also face sanctions or deregistration.
Burke suggested the wrong type of migrants were often staying, and the government will give greater weight to migrants with a trade
The government will also ramp up enforcement against visa overstayers, with Burke seeking to revive the approach used before 2015 of directing people whose visas have expired to leave Australia and potentially detaining those who refuse.
An additional 100 compliance officers and 250 detention beds will be added to support the crackdown.
The government is examining existing facilities near airports as well as the former Melbourne quarantine facility for additional detention capacity.
Despite the crackdown, Burke rejected claims Australia was experiencing mass migration.
‘There are parts of the world where mass migration is something that they are dealing with. It is not something we’re dealing with in Australia,’ he said.
‘There was a peak post-pandemic, which was too high. There are reasons why it was too high and reasons why, logically, there was always going to be a peak.’
Burke also defended immigration as critical to the Australian economy, arguing that both regional communities and major cities relied heavily on overseas workers and international students.
‘It is true that immigration is critical to the economy of our regions. It is also true that immigration is critical to the economy of our cities as well,’ he said.
Anthony Albanese’s government has announced major migration changes as Pauline Hanson’s popularity surges
He said international education supported jobs far beyond universities, including cleaners, maintenance workers and businesses.
‘There’s a whole section of the economy in the cities that is only there because we have an important export industry in international students,’ Burke said.
‘Drastic cuts, wherever you make them, hurt the economy in every part, in every area.
‘We talk about the need for extra housing. It’s pretty hard to get a house built without having a plasterer involved.
‘In both Sydney and Melbourne, close to two-thirds of the plasterers we have were born overseas.
‘We need immigration. We just need to make sure that it is targeted to Australia’s needs, both in terms of numbers and across the different categories that work for our economy.’
Burke suggested the wrong type of migrants were often staying.
‘There are individuals who would never, in fact, meet the qualifications to be able to become a permanent resident, and effectively jump from visa to visa, use the appeals process to be able to stay here as long as possible,’ he said.
‘It eventually becomes absurd not to just let them stay because, at that point, they have Australian-citizen children and, at that point, they are so integrated into a local community.’
Burke also rejected claims Australia’s housing shortage was primarily caused by immigration, arguing that falling household sizes had played a major role.
‘Housing, and the housing shortage we have, is not caused by immigration.
‘Anyone who looks at the migration program and wants to somehow say it was their fault, no. Australians have made a decision about how many people they want per household.’
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