The government has unveiled its plan to reduce net overseas migration to 225,000 by 2028 in line with forecasts from the May budget. Many of the most significant changes relate to international students, working holiday makers and visitor visas. The government has also flagged stronger enforcement and a crackdown on visa hopping.
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TRANSCRIPT
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has unveiled Labor's plan to reduce net overseas migration to 225,000 by 2028.
He says while there is a genuine need to reform immigration, the debate has run out of control, and it's important to acknowledge the role migration has played in shaping the nation.
"We need immigration. We just need to make sure that it is targeted for the needs of Australia in numbers and across the different categories that work for our economy."
Mr Burke says figures released this morning show net overseas migration had almost halved under Labor, dropping from a post-pandemic peak to reach 292,000 in the year to March.
Several cohorts will be affected by Labor’s latest effort to reduce those numbers further, including unlawful non-citizens, students, tourists, backpackers, and skilled migrants.
"So, the changes that we're making, as Tom said in the introduction, are summarised under the three headings: who arrives, who stays, and who leaves."
Some of the largest cuts will come from changes to the visa conditions of international students.
They'll have to leave when their studies finish unless moving on to a more advanced course.
Secondary visa places for international students families will largely be scrapped.
"What we will be doing for international students, and I'll go through the exceptions to this because the exceptions are also important. For international students, we will no longer be allowing the attaching of family members for international students or for graduate visas. Anyone who already has their family attached to a visa and is already here, we're not going to be breaking up families on shore. The ones who are already here, that'll stay as is."
The President of the International Students Representative Council of Australia, Weihong Liang, is calling for clarity around how current students will be affected.
He says it remains unclear whether students who already hold a valid visa will have the same ability to bring family into the country as when they arrived.
"We urge the government to expand those grandfather policy to the people already get the visa by today or by a certain date. That very important because the student, when they plan those whole journey, they maybe based on the old policy."
The families of skilled work visa holders won't face the same treatment - and will still be eligible for secondary visas moving forward.
It's a key difference to One Nation's policy, also launched this week, which would scrap those secondary places and reduce skilled migration to around 70,000.
Tony Burke says the skills list will also be updated to include a range of priority industries, including healthcare, construction, agriculture, education, resources and law enforcement.
But, he says, preventing workers from bringing their families would be counterproductive.
"Because can we presume that we'll get the same people, the same number, that that 70,000 will still be there, if none of them are allowed to bring their family anymore? How many doctors? at the moment? The proportion of doctors who come to Australia come with family attached to their application, 50 per cent How many construction workers come with family attached to their application? 50 per cent How many nurses and aged care workers come with family attached to their application? Two thirds."
Another major reduction will target Working Holiday Makers.
Existing requirements to work in regional areas during the second and third year of their stay will remain, but a ballot system will be used to cap numbers.
For the second year, there will be a limit of 45,000 places, and 5,000 in the third year - which together would be roughly 38,000 fewer than last year.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew Mckellar says the regions have been short changed.
“The fact that they've introduced a ballot to clamp the numbers means that that program will contract significantly. The reduction in the third-year numbers to almost nothing means that it will make it very difficult, very unlikely, that people in that program, backpackers, will continue to work in the regions in the second year.”
There will also be major changes to visitor visas - with the introduction of a ‘no further stay’ provision designed to prevent automatic transition to bridging visas.
Along with tighter rules for international students, this forms part of the government’s efforts to tackle so-called ‘visa hopping’.
Labor will also pursue stronger enforcement to crack down on those that overstay, with 100 more compliance officers.
An additional 250 beds will be created in alternative places of detention near airports, and potentially at a former quarantine facility near Melbourne as well.
Minister Burke was at pains to point out, though, this doesn’t mean a move towards ICE-style raids.
"What we will do is simply go back to what Australia always did before 2015. This is not the sort of operation that some people have seen on TV happening in other countries.”
Chair of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia, Peter Doukas has broadly welcomed the package.
He says he’s encouraged the minister acknowledges the role of migration as the foundation of modern Australia.
“And the government seems to have embraced a sensible approach to migration reform. And overall, while we have some concerns such as the way the student visa changes will be implemented, it appears to align with what we had submitted should be a long-term view on the needs of the country.”
Coalition leader Angus Taylor was quick to criticise the government's suite of changes.
Here's how he opened question time.
"My question is to the Prime Minister. Under Labor, 1,100 people have arrived in Australia every day. That's a new person arriving in Australia every 78 seconds. Labor is in denial. Why were there no cuts to immigration today?"
The Coalition hasn't announced their immigration policy yet, although Mr Taylor has indicated it's likely to be lower than Labor's, and explicitly linked to progress on housing construction.
Tony Burke says he would have liked to go further with his reforms but it wasn't possible because that would have required legislation, and support from the Coalition or Greens.
Shadow Defence Minister James Paterson has questioned Labor’s commitment to lower migration.
"Certainly, Labor's unwillingness to reduce migration numbers in any meaningful way is a big part of the problem. But also, frankly, we doubt their genuine sincerity in trying to do this. It's been clear from the fact that the ideas we put forward to them were pretty much universally dismissed that their heart is not in this; that they actually don't want to get migration numbers down; that they don't want to actually lift migration standards up, and therefore, it's very hard to work with them."
Ahead of Labor’s policy announcement, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson had this to say.
"So Labor again has lied to the people. They have sat on their hands. One Nation has forced them to produce this immigration policy, but it's not going to work, so it's all smoke and mirrors, and again, Labor continues to lie to the people wiht a hidden agenda. I don't trust them."
Drawing battle lines for the political fight that’s likely to come.
