Australia migration: Coalition plans 650,000 cut in temporary migrants over four years

Australia’s opposition Coalition has proposed measures to reduce the country’s temporary migrant population by about 650,000 over four years, including tighter international student visa rules. The plan would restrict secondary applicants, link student visas to institutions and tighten work-hour compliance, while retaining some post-study pathways for PhD, health, education and regional students.

The Liberals and Nationals believe that the proposed changes are part of a broader plan to reduce Australia’s net overseas migration while shifting the system towards skilled migration.

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For Indian students and migrants, the proposed changes could affect student visa applications, dependent visas and post-study work options. Under the plan, most international students would face restrictions on bringing family members to Australia. The Coalition said the measures are expected to reduce the share of foreign students in higher education to below 25 per cent.

However, students completing PhDs, studying health or education, or studying at regional universities would retain access to post-study transitional visas.

The Coalition also plans to link each student visa to the institution where the student is enrolled and increase action against international students who breach work-hour restrictions.

The Group of Eight (Go8), an alliance of Australia's leading research-intensive universities, said the proposals require “careful examination”. It noted that higher education visa applications are already down 9 per cent from last year, while visa grants have fallen 17 per cent under existing Labor government policies.

The organisation supports measures to strengthen Australia's migration and education systems but warned against applying broad restrictions to all international students.

Universities Australia also warned that further restrictions could affect Australia's international education sector, jobs and skilled workforce.

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Beyond education, the Coalition wants net overseas migration reduced to 100,000 a year for the first two years before rising to about 160,000 in the fourth year. The permanent skilled migration programme would remain capped at 185,000 places annually.

The plan also proposes halving Australia's humanitarian intake to 10,000 places a year, while making no changes to family reunion visas.

Shadow Immigration Minister Jonno Duniam said temporary visa holders would also face tighter rules on moving between temporary visas. The announcement comes days after the Labor government introduced new student visa rules under which most international students can no longer bring family members to Australia, except under limited exemptions.