One Nation proposes 750,000 immigration cut over three years, targeting student and family visas

One Nation has unveiled its plan to slash immigration by 750,000 places over three years, with major cuts targeting international students and the families of skilled migrants.

Student visas would be capped at about a third of the current intake, dipping to just over 100,000 places per year, with a new visa category created, similar to US President Donald Trump's so-called "genius visas", for "high-value" students.

Visas for families of both international students and skilled migrants would be cut to zero, and visa overstayers would be banned from Australia for life if they fail to exit.

The policy goes further than the party initially indicated, with migration levels going backwards for the first three years in what the party is calling "net-negative migration" to "recalibrate".

After that, the party would pursue a "ceiling" of 130,000 in the net overseas migration program, to be reviewed year on year.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Australians had "had enough of mass migration," and accused the major parties of sacrificing living standards to "serve vested interests".

She said the plan would bring migration levels to pre-pandemic 2017 levels of between 2.1 and 2.2 million people.

Labor frontbench Murray Watt said the policy would "destroy regional economies" and "probably drive the Australian economy in to recession".

"Apart from One Nation, we all recognise that we do have some serious labour shortages in some industries, and that is why coming out with these knee-jerk remarks can be a real economic problem," he said.

But Senator Hanson said a large economy meant "nothing" if Australians were getting poorer per person and could not afford a home.

"A larger economic pie doesn't mean anything if individual Australians' slice of it is getting smaller," she said.

University places targeted

International student places would be slashed from 590,000 to 350,000 under the proposal.

Universities that provide student housing for international students, rather than relying on them to find their own arrangements in the private rental market, would be given priority.

The cuts would also target international graduates who wish to remain in Australia to work after they finish their studies, reducing the number from 270,000 to just 40,000.

There is also a new category for "high value" students, which would prioritise those with PhDs and science, engineering and frontier technology.

"Our new high-value postgraduate study visa will also help attract the world's brightest minds in science, engineering and medical research, giving Australia the talent we need to compete and returning universities to their proper role as research institutions rather than visa factories," Senator Hanson said.

Families of students on high-value visas would be allowed to apply for visas to come to Australia, but those on standard student visas would not.

One Nation's policy position paper said Australia would "continue to welcome international students," but said the sector should compete on the "quality of its education" with migration decisions "made separately in Australia's interests".

The proposed changes would also make it harder for international students to secure visas for some study areas deemed "oversupplied", including accounting, IT and business.

No pathway for skilled migrant families

Visas for skilled migrants would remain uncapped and driven by "employer demand," and in-need skills like trades would be prioritised.

But visa places for families of skilled migrants would go to zero.

Earlier this year, business groups rubbished a leaked Labor proposal to process families of skilled migrants offshore instead of in Australia, which they said would make Australia a less attractive option for critical workers.

One Nation said it would retain settings for seasonal workers including the working holiday maker program and the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, which many regional communities relied on.

Deputy Liberal leader Senator Jane Hume said One Nation's solution lacked modelling.

"If you get your migration program wrong, all Australians will pay a price," she said.

"You could throw the economy into recession, and that means everybody will end up paying for a poorly thought-through immigration policy."

Do not travel ban remains

One Nation has stuck by its promise to pause migration from countries the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade rates as "do not travel" because of "terrorism or other extreme security risks".

The party has previously promised to refuse entry to migrants from nations "known to foster extremist ideologies" that are "incompatible with Australian values and way of life".

Senator Hanson said she also wanted to stop taxpayer-funded legal aid for visa appeals.

One Nation also has a policy to introduce an eight-year waiting period for citizenship and welfare, and promised to withdraw Australia from the UN Refugee Convention.