1 hour ago
5
Foreign citizens staying in Australia without a valid visa face new enforcement measures to force them to leave the country, with Labor’s changes to immigration also to affect backpackers and prevent international students from extending their stays indefinitely.
The announcement has received praise from business and industry groups and criticism from the government’s political opponents and human rights advocacy groups.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has unveiled long-awaited changes to immigration rules, promising to bring down net overseas migration (Nom) to 245,000 this financial year, and 225,000 in 2027-28.
On Thursday the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed that Nom had eased to 292,000 in the year to March, from 299,000 in December.
Burke said the government would implement new compliance measures to ensure people without valid visas left the country, including plans to repurpose a former quarantine facility in Melbourne as a detention centre and to bring on an additional 100 compliance officers.
“This is not the sort of operation that some people have seen on TV happening in other countries,” Burke said, in an apparent reference to US president Donald Trump’s ICE agency.
Tweaks to ministerial directions will also direct bureaucrats to prioritise visa applicants with in-demand skills, including in healthcare, construction, education and law enforcement.
The skilled jobs list covers hundreds of professions, including paramedics, electricians and teachers.
Applicants in defence, resources, agriculture, aquaculture and fishing could also receive improved consideration under the changes.
Before an address to the National Press Club in Canberra, Burke said so-called visa hopping by international students would be restricted, as would visas for family members of students.
Last year Australia issued more than 337,000 international student visas, of which about 45,000 went to dependants or family members of the primary applicant.
Under the latest changes, the vast majority of students will be required to come alone.
Dodgy migration agents face new penalties for helping visa rorters and a new “no further stay” condition will be added to all visitor visas, to ensure they can only be used by genuine short-term visitors and don’t provide a pathway for individuals to stay in the country.
“Once they get here, and if they apply onshore, the process has been that they stay, and they’re [put] on a bridging visa,” Burke said.
“It’s a double standard that really has no logic attached to it. But the consequence of that sort of double standard has been deeply problematic.”
Amid concerns from the agriculture sector that the growing arms race in immigration policy could create workforce shortages and even delay some harvesting and processing in the lead-up to Christmas, Burke said Labor would change backpacker visa rules to introduce a ballot system for years two and three, which will include a regional work requirement.
He said processing times for working holidaymaker visa applications would be stabilised to three months. The onshore waiting period is typically five days now but can take months for offshore applicants.
after newsletter promotion
Working holidaymakers from the UK will remain excluded from caps and regional working requirements as agreed to under the free trade agreement with Australia.
Burke said there were almost 80,000 living in Australia, more than double the pre-pandemic peak of 35,000, calling the growth rate a “challenge” that would be discussed with the UK government.
“It’s a level of growth that means we are just, at the moment, going to continue to be processing that one slowly,” he said.
The character test would also be updated to reflect Australia’s stance on stamping out hatred and family violence.
Before the speech, Burke said Labor would maintain control of the migration system while treating individuals with the fairness and decency that Australians expect.
“The government supports immigration but is opposed to anyone rorting the immigration system,” he said.
“Almost everyone who comes to Australia is a good guest in our country. These reforms are to ensure that our migration system can be better targeted to the current needs of Australia.”
Coalition says Labor ‘all over the shop’
Burke’s speech is the latest push by Labor to control the politics of immigration, coming as One Nation surges in the polls and as community sentiment about the number of overseas arrivals influences politics around the country.
The deputy opposition leader, Jane Hume, told ABC Labor’s immigration policy had been “all over the shop” and could not be supported without further details. The Greens said it was a “Tony Abbott-era” policy in a “race to the bottom with One Nation”.
The Business Chamber of Australia’s chief executive, Bran Black, welcomed the changes but said there was concern it would be tougher to get certain skilled workers through the new system quickly.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said a lack of clarity on whether time restrictions would be placed on people in Australia seeking asylum showed migrants and refugees remained “political punching bags”.
