Overview
- Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke unveiled the package at the National Press Club on Thursday and said the changes will help meet government targets to cut net overseas migration to about 245,000 in 2026–27 and 225,000 thereafter.
- Most international students will no longer be allowed to bring partners or children on new visas with limited exceptions for PhD students and some Pacific and Southeast Asian nationals.
- Working‑holiday extensions will move to a ballot with second‑year places cut to 45,000 and third‑year places to 5,000, and students will generally only be able to extend visas by progressing to higher‑level courses to stop repeated short‑course extensions.
- Skilled visas will be reprioritised toward construction, agriculture, fisheries, resources and teaching and some construction trade qualifications will be treated as equivalent to university degrees under a reweighted points test.
- The package boosts enforcement—100 extra compliance officers, about 250 additional detention beds and possible use of a former Melbourne quarantine facility—yet industry groups, universities and the opposition warn of workforce and economic harms and the regulations face an immediate risk of Senate disallowance.