source : the age
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news this Friday, September 18. Here’s what is making headlines today.
- In an address to the National Press Club yesterday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed sweeping changes to Australia’s migration system that will ram up deportations, close partner-visa loopholes, and introduce stricter rules to curb visa hopping. Burke said the plan would help the government’s reach its net migration target of 225,000.
- In response to the changes, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson suggested that both Labor and the Coalition had started to see that they’ve “done the wrong thing by the country”, while Greens senator David Shoebridge accused Labor of following One Nation’s lead.
- Net overseas migration for the March quarter was 101,005 – a 6 per cent fall on the same period in 2025 – according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday. But Coalition parliamentarians, including Matt Canavan and Andrew Bragg, said the figures were still too high.
- Thousands of high school and university students across the country held a second wave of national protests against Pauline Hanson yesterday, following a similar walkout in major cities in August.
Health Minister Mark Butler has said the government’s cuts to backpacker visas are “pretty reasonable controls” despite concerns farmers would struggle to find workers to harvest their crops.
The new migration policy unveiled yesterday includes significant cuts to second- and third-year visas for working holiday makers, dropping from 57,000 to 45,000 in the second year, and 31,000 to 5000 in the third.
“We’ve had to do that to be able to focus our efforts and target workers, the skilled workers that are in very high demand in sectors like construction, in healthcare, those doctors and nurses, … in agriculture, in resources, and law enforcement,” Butler told Seven’s Sunrise this morning.
“That really was the plan that [Home Affairs Minister] Tony [Burke] laid out yesterday to get better balance in the system – a system that’s given this country just so much, our migration system – and also to improve the compliance. I think Australians recognise there’s too much visa hopping, there’s too many people overstaying their visas. So it was a very comprehensive package that Tony outlined.”
Butler pushed back on claims the government had not done enough to bring migration into line, saying it had reduced net overseas migration by almost 50 per cent since a post-COVID peak, and was putting additional funding into compliance measures to encourage overstayers to leave.
“This is a very broad package that we announced yesterday, and I think it’s the right balance for the country,” Butler said.
The Coalition is seeking to “totally reform” the skilled visa system and will tighten the nation’s rules for temporary exclusion orders when it unveils its migration policy, opposition spokesman for home affairs Jonno Duniam said this morning.
“We think there needs to be a tightening around the availability of temporary graduate visas. We think there needs to be a complete reformation of the skilled visa list and the processing system around the issuing of skilled visas in line with actual need in this country,” he told ABC TV.
“We think that there also needs to be some tightening around elements of the law relating to who comes into this country, especially as it relates to the temporary exclusion order regime that goes to national security, and also third-party repatriations of people who’ve been charged with or could be charged with terror-related offences.”
Pressed on why it had taken so long for the Coalition to announce its plan, Duniam said:
Burke also said last night that he was consulting closely with Minister for Agriculture Julie Collins to work through the concerns raised by farmers following Labor’s migration changes.
He told the ABC farmers were right to be concerned about the agricultural workforce, but that there “there is no part of the economy where you can have an impact on immigration without having some tension”.
Farmers have flagged their concerns about Australia’s food security and warned Labor’s migration plan could drive up prices in supermarkets.
Yesterday, Nationals leader Matt Canavan said:
“The government is now resorting to using our farmers, service industry, other regional industries as whipping boys for their failure to bring down migration. The targeting in Tony Burke’s speech of the farm sector is an outrage.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has argued his migration overhaul is critical for the Australian economy even as his government’s migration targets are “on track”.
Speaking to ABC’s 7.30 program last night, the minister was asked why Labor had decided to put migrant groups and international students offside if the government’s targets were tracking in the right direction.
“It’s what’s within the number that determines the economic impact,” he said.
“You could have net overseas migration of 225,000 with no skilled workers, or with all skilled workers … How you get there determines the impact on the Australian economy.”
Anxiety had been building among Australia’s international students for weeks as a promised migration crackdown targeting them loomed.
Yesterday, family WhatsApp chats exploded as overseas relatives weighed up sweeping reforms that will bar family members coming to Australia on conditions attached to student visas.
“The biggest issue will be leaving a child or your partner behind,” said Pakistani international student Ali Chatha, who is two years into an undergraduate science degree at the University of Melbourne. “In the end, you’re going to choose your family over your career and opportunities.”
The federal government plans to curb net migration from about 300,000 to 225,000 next year using a suite of measures. The biggest group in the government’s sights is international students, whose numbers will be curbed by targeting visa hopping and by reducing the influx of family members.
The government’s plans include exemptions for family members of students from Pacific and ASEAN countries, as well as those studying specific courses such as PhDs.
Read the full story here.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news this Friday, September 18. Here’s what is making headlines today.
- In an address to the National Press Club yesterday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed sweeping changes to Australia’s migration system that will ram up deportations, close partner-visa loopholes, and introduce stricter rules to curb visa hopping. Burke said the plan would help the government’s reach its net migration target of 225,000.
- In response to the changes, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson suggested that both Labor and the Coalition had started to see that they’ve “done the wrong thing by the country”, while Greens senator David Shoebridge accused Labor of following One Nation’s lead.
- Net overseas migration for the March quarter was 101,005 – a 6 per cent fall on the same period in 2025 – according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday. But Coalition parliamentarians, including Matt Canavan and Andrew Bragg, said the figures were still too high.
- Thousands of high school and university students across the country held a second wave of national protests against Pauline Hanson yesterday, following a similar walkout in major cities in August.
