Australia to cut migration by tightening visa rules

Australia will cut migration by toughening visa rules for foreign students, backpackers, and working holiday-makers, the Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Thursday.

Under the new rules, foreign students will no longer be allowed to bring partners and children to join them while they study in Australia, while people who overstay their working holiday visas will face tougher enforcement.

The government is also cracking down on so-called "visa hopping," where foreign migrants who are already in Australia move from one type of temporary visa to another to extend their stay.

"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," Burke said.

In remarks to the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday, Burke insisted that immigration remains "fundamentally a strength" for Australia, but acknowledged that rules needed adjusting to ease pressure on housing.

"We need immigration to soften enough that housing has a chance to catch up," he said, while stressing the housing shortage was not caused by migrants.

Burke said it was "simply demonstrably wrong" that his ruling center-left Labor party was beefing up its visa rules as a response to a surge in the polls by the far-right One Nation.

This year, the group has become one of the country's most popular parties, campaigning on pledges to slash migration to the country as part of its "Australia First" approach, which has drawn similarities to US President Donald Trump.

The hard-right party said this week that it would cut the number of temporary migrants by 750,000 over the next three years to give Australians "breathing space."

The cost of living and immigration have ranked as some of voters' most pressing concerns in recent polls.

The changes are set to see net annual migration fall from the current 300,000 to around 225,000 by 2028. That would see numbers return to the levels before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Annual migration surged to its highest level of 538,000 in 2022, after borders reopened.

Data on Thursday showed that migration numbers had declined to 292,100 in the year to March, 47% below the peak following the pandemic, Burke said.

Students make up the biggest immigrant group: some 753,000 foreign students live in Australia, most of whom come from China and India.

The reforms will see Australia return to its policy of a decade earlier when those who overstayed were given two weeks to leave the country or face detention and deportation, the minister said.

People seeking to extend their working holiday visas in rural areas will enter a ballot for a second or third year.

Applicants with skills in construction and housing will be prioritized for visas, Burke said.

Relatives of visa holders wanting to visit the country will have "no further stay" conditions applied to their visas.