Overview
- One Nation released a plan on Monday proposing to remove about 750,000 temporary visas over three years, cap student places and sharply limit family entry for migrants.
- Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke will set out Labor’s reworked migration plan on Thursday, aiming to reduce net overseas migration to roughly 245,000 in 2026/27 and about 225,000 per year thereafter.
- Officials have already used administrative levers to slow working-holiday processing and reprioritise skilled offshore applications under Ministerial Direction 119, and Labor’s package is expected to effectively bar student dependents and tighten bridging-visa rules.
- Universities, business groups and farmers warn big cuts would hollow out research funding and international fee income (about 27% of sector revenue), cause campus closures, job losses and deepen labour shortages in health, aged care, hospitality, agriculture and construction.
- Parliamentary agreement is uncertain, so Labor may rely on regulatory changes rather than new laws; the debate exposes stalled cross-party talks and a wider strain between housing, workforce planning and migration policy while the ART backlog and bridging visas enable long onshore stays.